Bog off!
In preparation for my mammoth trek around the Brecon Beacons later in July to raise money for Llamau, we headed off on Saturday to Sutton Park. I will be taking on the Brace the Brecons challenge with Max (that in itself deserves a hefty donation). I will obviously post a blog of our adventures after the challenge - if we survive. Anyway, back to Sutton Park.
Our walk started off promising. We aimed to do a circular walk of the park, totaling around 7 miles. We stopped off after the first mile at a boating lake and took to the water in a pedal-powered steamer. Mike did most of the hard work, my pedaling was more of a token gesture.
After a lap of the lake, we disembarked the steamer and continued along the trail. I should point out here that Mike was chief navigator for our walk, and frequently consulted Google maps to ensure we were on the right track. It became apparent around the 3-mile mark that something had gone badly wrong with his map reading and we clearly weren't on the right track (it was very reminiscent of being on an adventure with my idiot brother). We had instead found ourselves in a huge area of bog land. Despite my protestations that we should retrace our steps and try and find the path, Mike insisted we wade on through the bog and assured me 'the path' was just up ahead. This nonsense went on for about half an hour, and at one point Mike even lost both his shoes in the bog carrying me to drier land (I was wearing flip flops).
But continue we did. Until eventually I insisted we climb over a nearby fence and make a break for freedom. And guess what? No sooner did we jump the fence, than we happened upon the path not 10 yards away. You couldn't make this shit up! By this point my feet looked like I had been wading through shit - God knows what fellow walkers thought of me as we passed them.
The rest of the walk passed uneventfully I'm pleased to say. Although it will come as no surprise that Mike steered us wrong again on the return leg to the car. After Mike fectacularly spuked up the whole walk, we eventually made it back to the motor, weary and filthy, and headed for home for a well needed shower.
Day two of our adventure weekend took us to Canon Hill Park. According to the website, it's Birmingham's best day out - it isn't. We headed straight to the fun park, which is basically a mini-theme park aimed at 5 year olds (I should point out that we were joined on this trip by Mike's small child - we don't usually hang out at kids fun parks). The only ride big enough to accommodate grown-ups was a midget roller coaster, which I took in my stride....
Following my close encounter with death, a lap of the park and feeding the ducks, we headed from here to the Nature Centre. There was an eclectic mix of animals residing here, from weird human-faced hairy things:
To hairy devil baboons - I mean, what the actual fuck is this?
We ended our day watching the final of Euro 2020. After the initial excitement of the 2 minute opening England goal, it soon became apparent by the second half, and Italy's equaliser, that we were going to lose on penalties, so before the game ended we headed to bed. And that is where our weekend of fun ended.
Sutton Park is actually worth a visit - just don't take Mike with you because fuck knows where you'll end up. Canon Hill Park is also worth visiting. And despite the lack of animals we saw on the day, I would also recommend the Nature Centre. The only downside to all these places is the fact they're in Birmingham.
And lastly, I would hugely appreciate any support my 3 followers can give me for my charity walk for Llamau (Mother & Father Salsbury are excluded because they have already donated - Alistair, that just leaves you). Please give anything you can, even if it's only 50p - https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ellie-salsburyhqn
Check out Instragram for more photos of my adventures
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