Weekend in the Cotswolds Day 3

On the Saturday of our trip to the Cotswolds, we got up and had pastries and orange juice and coffee for breakfast which was perfect, then we set off to Cotswold Wildlife Park. When we arrived though Neil realised he had left his camera back at the cottage so he went off back to get it. The rest of us headed into the park and we were just in time to see the penguins being fed! It was a member of the public feeding them who had got like an experience thing - I want to do that! The penguins were all so cute and they ate all their fish and then they swum about and it was very lovely to see.

We headed into the greenhouses after that where Neil caught up with us not long after. We looked round all the garden area and then it was about 12.30 so we found a picnic bench and ate our packed lunch. We had sandwiches and crisps and apples, nothing too exciting. Then we walked through the rest of the park.

It's pretty big so it was a lot of walking for me. We went past the rhinos and the giant tortoises which were really cool. The rhinos were so big! They were cool to see. They were plenty of benches so I took rests. We went past the zebras which were cute and we saw the lions who were just hiding under trees in the heat so that wasn't very exciting. You can walk up a walkway to the giraffes which are SO tall, I really never realised how tall they are! 

The last part is like a petting zoo and some rare breeds and stuff and I was majorly flagging by this point so Lee and I didn't spend much time in there. We thought about going on the train but the queue was longer than I could stand so we didn't bother. We went back to the beginning and waited for the others, and had ice creams which were nice. It was a hot day!

We went back to the cottage and Neil and Caroline were pottering around getting things ready for the food that evening. Neil was sitting outside in the sunshine chopping up vegetables! Lee went in the shower and Peter was sitting with me. I pulled a blanket over myself and had quite a long nap! I was so tired after walking a long way that I slept for around 90 mins. When I woke up Lee, Caroline and Peter were all sitting on the floor doing the jigsaw. Lee said, "It's her condition, she needs to nap" which was very sweet of him. 

I felt quite a bit better and was hungry by this time so was looking forward to tea. Neil has a grill thing called a raclette where you can cook meat and fish and veggies on top and do like mini omelettes underneath. They had brought salmon, prawns, mushrooms, peppers, and some other bits. I am currently eating fish because I'm anaemic again and the nurse suggested I eat fish to try and get my iron levels up. So the salmon and prawns were delicious! It was really fun to do, too. We had salad bits alongside and we sat there for a long time eating and chatting. What a pleasure!

Then Caroline had made an apple and blackberry crumble for pudding, using some of t  he fruit that Neil had foraged the day before! It was delicious, I love crumble. 

Caroline, Peter, and Lee had finished the jigsaw so that had been worth taking for them to do. It's a bit of a family tradition of mine - we like to sit and dso jigsaws on holiday and there's something very communal about it as no one can resist picking up a few pieces. We played some quizzes in the evening but we weren't late to bed!

Penguins! They were Humbolt penguins so not very tall

Doing swimming

I wanted to steal this one and keep it in the bath

Cactuses in the garden area!

Prairie dogs maybe?

Giant tortoise! You don't get the scale here but it was huge

Rhinos! They're so big too, so lovely. They were playing in the mud

Camels!

Giraffes! They're way bigger than I thought they were

Zebras, they were lovely to see too

And finally capybaras, which are Lee's favourite

Lovely ice cream while we waited for the others

And finally the sky as the sun was setting, so pretty