The bridle path was a pretty walk under the cover of some trees and along an old stone wall. Up ahead another gate, walking through it is not obvious to either of us which way to go. Since I chose the bridal path, I let Nadya pick the next wrong turn. She picked right, right along a fence and up a hill to a fence. Well, we could see the castle but there was no way there. Back down to the gate and pick left past the sheep. “Sheep fear me!” Nadya exclaims to no one in particular as the sheep clear the path in front of her. She is mighty where sheep are concerned. Sheep. We make our way to another fence and large thicket of thistles. The path is down hills and we start to wonder about the wisdom of people who built a castle at the bottom of a valley. Just then a bunny scoots past. “Ah,” we expostulate, “the castle was protected by great fierce bunnies.” “And sheep,” Nadya adds, wanting her minions to, get their due.
Again Nadya uses her God given (given in a bad mood apparently) navigation skills to pick the best path, “I’ll go through here” and then changes her mind when she sees the thistles are about 3 feet high. So again back to the gate.
Did we mention that at every wrong pasture we entered the same blue tractor appeared? No doubt it had a farmer laughing his arse off.
This time we choose the only remaining direct and go straight to the top of the hill and find the next gate, through another field to another gate, chase a couple rabbits in the forest with the friends of the Martian plants, Nadya encounters sting nettles and finally up a looong hill with a castle at the top. We pay our fee and learn there is no bus back. According to a guide book, Aydon Castle is “one of England’s finest examples of fortified medieval manor houses.”
This post was written by
Jim – who has written 327 posts on UniBrain Trust.
Jim is the curator of UniBrain Motorsports, our resident photographer and the only one in the family to shoot a perfect 25. He enjoys eating Nadya's cooking and tries his best to stay out of her way while in the kitchen.