For my last full day in Arundel I knew that I wanted to spend my time exploring the Arundel Wetland Centre. It’s an easy walk from the town centre – simply walk by the entrance to the castle and continue all the way down the street, over a bridge then continue until you see the entrance on the right – it takes maybe 15 to 20 minutes. Do note that part of the route has no pavement but it’s a wide track and easy to navigate safely. There is of course a car park if you’re driving.
After putting in some long hours at work recently (the joys of being self-employed!) I decided to take a random day off to enjoy the sunshine and headed out to Attenborough Nature Reserve. I’ve been here before a number of times but this time I travelled there from Nottingham on the train (an all day ticket is £3.70 and the journey takes around 10 minutes). Attenborough is a tiny station with only two platforms but the nature reserve is well signposted from there and it only takes about 5-10 minutes walk through some streets lined with very beautiful houses to reach one of the entrances to the reserve.
Recently needing to de-stress after a particularly busy week at work I ventured out to Colwick Country Park with my dad, prompted to do so by a recent council email about improvements to the footpaths at the park. A huge park with lakes and a marina that was opened in 1978 we were impressed with the new pathways – much more comfortable to walk on and far better for pushchairs and wheelchair uses.
It had been a while since I’d been to the farm so I decided to pop by just after one of May’s many bank holidays so that I could see the lambs, and also I hadn’t yet been to see the meerkats which they now, somewhat randomly, have in their barn.
Nottingham has a great deal of green spaces many of which I’ve never actually visited, so this year I’ve decided to try and visit more of them. Arnot Hill Park was the first of these, which I picked solely because I happened to be roughly in the area on the day. It was easy to get to by bus – there’s a stop right outside the entrance on Nottingham Road.
On this trip I entered the reserve via the Beeston Canal towpath which I haven’t done before. It was foggy to start off with though not actually all that cold, even though large parts of the lakes and ponds were frozen. You can’t get lost on this route (or really any of the different routes around the nature reserve) so we just followed it until we decided we needed a cup of tea (first time I’ve used a flask in ages!) and then headed back the way we’d come to where we’d parked the car.
Owned by Nottingham City Council this 21 hectare park is so close to the University of Nottingham that it is often confused for being part of the campus. It is probably decades since the last time I spent any time here, despite trips nearby in recent years, but over the spring we managed a long overdue walk around the lake.
Last week we decided to go for a walk around the lake at Clumber Park. Run by the National Trust entry is free for members (which we are) or £5 for an adult. The park spans 3,800 acres and was quite busy; we had to park in the overflow car park which we’ve never had to do before, but as it’s so large it never felt crowded at any point, and at plenty of sections there was no one else around at all.
I recently visited Attenborough Nature Reserve for the first time in years as I was in need of a change of scene. Run by the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust it covers 205 hectares of lakes, wetland, grassland and scrub. There are several walks around the reserve – on this occasion we did the Tufted Duck Nature Trail which took us past some of the lakes as well as through areas of grassland.
Last week I paid a visit to Wollaton Hall and Deer Park which I haven’t been to since the pandemic started since it takes me two short bus journeys to get there. I’ve mainly been walking around my local area during all the lockdowns which can get a bit boring so it was nice to have a bit of a change of scene now that I’m fully vaccinated but still taking sensible precautions. I didn’t manage to see any deer on this trip which is unusual but plenty of swans and their cygnets on the lake and I paid a visit to the gardens and saw some sculptures that I’d not seen before around the grounds. [There’s a special exhibition on inside the hall of a T.Rex skeleton for which I have tickets but not till next month so expect a post about that in the future].
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