The weather forecast had been awful all week. We had made no plans to go out anywhere. I even checked again before I went to bed on Wednesday night and rain was forecast all day.
We woke up to sunshine. The weather forecast had changed. It would stay dry until the afternoon so we quickly got ready and headed out to Dewstow Gardens and Grotto near Caldicot.
We were warned on arrival that there was a lot of steps and water and although it was OK to paddle, in fact nowhere was out of bounds, to keep a close eye on Bear.
Off we went to explore the grottoes. We came across some stepping stones that Bear negotiated with our help and a tree full of fairy doors. Throughout the grotto were lots and lots of fairies and even Peter Pan.
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| Bear knocking on fairy door. Lots of fairies in the grottoes and gardens. |
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| Peter Pan of course |
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| Bear exploring the grottoes |
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| A face in the artificial rock. |
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| Bear searching for fish and fairies |
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| Lots of fish in the pools |
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| Lots of waterfalls too |
The tunnels were very dark, just lit by holes in the roof and occasional lights. Bear loved that it was dark and was fascinated by the lights.
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| Bear fascinated by the light |
There are beautiful gardens too with views across the channel. The plants are so much more advanced than ours and there were lots of tender plant that wouldn't survive in our garden. We only had a quick look though as Bear preferred the water in the grottoes.
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| Peepo! |
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| Having a well earned rest |
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| A quick snack watching the grass being cut |
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| View across the Bristol Channel |
We really enjoyed our visit. We have a lovely coffee and cake in the cafe and Bear watched robin's eat bread from his sandwich. They were so friendly we thought they would steal it from his hands.
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| Beautiful and lush gardens |
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| A topiary snail at the entrance |
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| Not the best picture but we loved watching the robins take Bears bread |
We really enjoyed our visit but it took two to supervise Bear. There were a couple of shallow streams that he could walk in but mostly the water was very deep. It isn't suitable for buggy's and due to the low roofs not really suitable for baby carriers on your back.
It cost us £6 each (60+ concessions) and free for Bear. We thought it was well worth the money.
Have you been to a fairy Grotto?
*We paid our own entrance fee
Having just commented on your Sunday photo I am thrilled to see the full sotry here. I was really hoping I'd see either side of the lovely little tunnel. I can't tell you how similar this is to the activity hour we created this week along our welly walk. I had the children all make fairy doors which we hung on the trunk of a big tree. We even had to pass through a tunnel of canes to reach it! I'm sure it will be a future Country Kids post from me. Amazing to think there is actually a place embracing all the same fairy magic and I have to say those fairy doors do look more professional than ours! Thank you so much for sharing with me on #CountryKids.
ReplyDeleteI took so many photo's but it was quite dark and I didn't want to use flash so lots weren't good enough for my blog. It's a great place to visit and I loved your cardboard boat. Still makes me smile
DeleteWow, what a magical place to explore!!!! My kids would love those caves. I adore the picture of your son with the fairy doors! So cute! #countrykids
ReplyDeleteReally want to go here, it looks lovely. The photos are beautiful x
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