Day Two

Day 2 was actually our first full day and we couldn't believe it when we woke up to sunshine! Taking advantage of it we decided to visit

where Charles 1 was imprisoned and tried to escape before being sent to the Tower of London and being beheaded!

We arrived just as it opened and it wasn't too crowded, which was nice. Here are Hugh and Penny about to go over the bridge to the castle.

After having a wander about to get our bearings (and pretending to fire a canon!) we made our way to the well shed where they used a donkey to wind the bucket up from the well. We were told about 10 times how the donkeys these days are really well kept and only kept on the wheel for a maximum of three minutes a day each and that when they show how it works to the public they only have to turn the wheel twice and that is only about 30 seconds of walking! I think they may have had problems with animal rights people!

As it was, the donkey decided after turning the wheel once to leave some manure on the wheel! The lady giving the talk then had to brush it off before continuing as otherwise we would have all been covered with it!

We then did the castle walls walk which I normally find frightening and have been known to freeze and not be able to move because of the height! However, this one was fine as it had reasonably high walls on one side and a good fence on the other (or more good wall!). We made use of the wall to take a photo on the self timer.

The views from the wall were pretty spectacular. This is the view of the castle buildings from up on the walls.

 We then walked up to the top of the keep - that is the tower behind Hugh and Penny. The views from there were the best of all.

We could see for miles and miles - we were lucky that although the sun had gone in it had not got cloudy and the it was still very clear.

We finished our time at the castle with a picnic next to the donkey house!

From the castle we went on to the Owl and Monkey Haven - well, actually we had to go back to the cottage first because the battery ran out in my camera and I had forgotten to take a fully charged one with me! All the primates and birds of prey are rescue animals and we had a very happy hour looking at them all.

This photo was taken through glass, but I was quite pleased with it!

These apes were sunbathing - the pair in the front are mother and daughter and it was really sweet to see them holding hands. There is one on the grass too!

We arrived at the main bird of prey area just in time for the talk and were able to stroke the tummy feathers of this owl which had been hand reared and was extremely undisturbed by all the attention!

We then went back to the cottage and collapsed - too much fresh air and walking for one day! But we had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.