A day out in the area around Monmouth. We visit the animals at Raglan Farm Park; go canoeing on the Wye with Yofi Paddlesports and visit the Wye Valley Butterfly Zoo.
Friday 30 May. Cloudy with sunny spells. 19°C – nb. there’s too much nature related to do in Wye Valley to limit the day to just one challenge – so we did three! B is going away with the school for three days the following week so we justified it by saying it could fill in for those.
216 – Stroking a baby donkey at Raglan Farm Park
We’ve been coming to Raglan Farm Park since B was five. A bit like London Zoo she’s getting a bit old for it now but it’s helpfully placed on the way to Monmouth so we come anyway to check in. Feeding the donkeys carrots doesn’t got old or boring with age. There was a shortage this time so we settled for picking large stems of grass from the animal free side of the meadow and delivering it across. The alpacas didn’t seem to see the point of eating from someone’s hand when they were in a meadow full of grass… the donkeys differed. They thought eating grass from a person infinitely preferable to putting their heads down!
It’s an amazing place for kids with huge amounts of soft play, bouncy castles, trampolines and zip wires. If you get there early the bouncy castles are empty. Little B found them alarming with too many kids on them and she found her love of them here. There’s also two different sizes of zip lines for different levels of adrenalin seeking! There’s also a great farm shop which makes me happy.
Best of all, for our nature challenge purposes, they have a regular supply of baby donkeys. The one this time, four weeks old and with a naming competition in place, was particularly cute. As opposed to the emu… who, denied carrots to snap, settled for staring everyone out.
215 – Canoeing on the Wye
On for lunch at Ye Olde Ferrie Inn at Symonds Yat (West) (a treat for the adults with amazing views and lovely food). There’s a hand pulled ‘ferrie’ here that goes across to the other side for walkers and cyclists. We’ve done that the last few times we’ve visited but this time I’ve finally persuaded B to try canoeing. Yofi Paddlesports is based by the Inn and is really easy to access. You can book online but we just went up in person. B was a bit wary but she’s doing canoeing on her residential trip with the school and was open to trying it beforehand to stop it feeling too scary.
Leon was really helpful. He gave us really clear guidance and instructions on routes and what to do in an emergency. We headed off up river, playing with paddles and generally failing to keep the boat going straight. B was nervous. I’m not sure why. She loves our paddleboard and is very confident on it, but rivers and canoes are apparently different. We put our paddles in to check depth and found the ground was just below the bottom of the canoe. That cheered her up but when we tried again a few minutes later to find it deeper than the paddle she panicked.
Helpfully my mum was following us along the bank, so we found a place to pull up and B departed canoe to walk instead and I continued solo up the river while they walked back. It was beautiful and I really enjoyed it. Looking back I think letting B out was the right decision. I want her to be confident on the water and reckon it’s better to know you can stop if you want to.
214 – Walking with butterflies
Five minutes drive or half an hour walk from Ye Olde Ferrie Inn is the Wye Valley Butterfly Zoo. Another regular haunt for us, we normally also do the wonderful Amazing Hedge Puzzle which is also there but alas it is not well at the moment and is being replanted. We also like the mini golf.
The butterfly zoo is a lovely example of it’s type. It’s big and warm and we all love walking around it and watching the butterflies flutter about you. They’re very calm and friendly and B always manages to get one to land on her finger. She adopts one quickly today and it stays put for the whole visit. In the end we gentle blow on it and it flutters off. We find a fallen leaf on the floor to make a 214 and a helpful butterfly absorbed in some banana to pose next to it. A fellow visitor points out what may or may not be butterfly eggs on a tall yucca type plant. We also find chrysalises bobbing gently in a glass case. To finish the visit off in style two black and red butterflies attached to each other (we presume they’re making more eggs) fall onto B’s hand. They don’t seem able to move easily so we find a plant to gently attach them to!
A note about car parks for anyone else visiting this lovely area of the world. Ye Olde Ferrie Inn has a tarmacked car park which is free for customers. Beyond it is an overflow field which you need to pay for (there’s a machine in the corner) and is run separately. Wye Valley Butterfly Farm has a car park which you need to pay for. There’s a pay machine in the corner by the toilets or you can pay online.
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