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Published: October 13th 2007
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Walkin The Planks
Our treetop adventure course Note: Now I know I've been slack in the blog dept but we have now settled into a new place and have the internet again so look out they'll be coming in hard and fast again (I know I've said that before). I'll be up to date before you know it, so check 'em out, even if you just look at the pics. Cheers guys!
Monday 7th May Up early again to try and cram as much in as we could. After breaky in the classy Manor dining room we packed and headed westward towards the Welsh border to partake in some Go Ape action. Go Ape run a high wire forest adventure course of rope bridges, Tarzan Swings and zip slides up to 40 feet up in the trees in the Forest of the Dean. We got a bit of safety training on using the harness and clipping on and off of the cables correctly then we climbed up to start the 10 stage course. It was great fun tackling them all and we always opted for the most difficult route (their was usually a choice of which way you could go) from tree to tree. We had
to utilize flying foxes, rope swings, nets, tubes, wooden steps and stirrups to get us through and although some sections were definitely challenging we didn't have too much trouble. The biggest problem was getting all the wood chips out of our bum cracks after landing ass first on the flying foxes.
After conquering the forest from above now was the time to conquer it from below. We had booked a couple of mountain bikes for the day to venture through the Dean from a place just a few miles away. But we only had 5 minutes to get there so it was time to bust a move. For the next 5 hours we explored the ancient forest full of moss covered trees, ferns, flowers and logs. The view from some parts of the trail were pretty spectacular, overlooking valleys full of trees. It was a bit like the tracks down in Dwellingup but hillier, denser and not as dry. We had a quick recharge at Mallards Pike Lake (duck filled and surrounded by large pines) for a coffee then followed a river all the way back to the bike hire shop.
It was getting on about 5pm but
we were only 5 miles from the Wales border and I couldn't resist at least seeing a smidgen of it while we were here. Almost as soon as we crossed the border, as unbelievable as it was, things got even greener than they had been in the Cotswolds. Heading towards one of the closest towns to the border, Monmouth, we found ourselves driving down roads that were like green tunnels. Trees and plants surrounded the road from the cliff face on the left to the valley on the right and had also grown up and over the road. The scenery was amazing, with the river Wye winding its way down the Wye valley, sheep grazing in lush pastures on the flat flanked by great hills covered in greenery. We stopped in at Monmouth for a quick kebab and plotted a route back home. One town we were guided back through was Tintern, a quaint little village in the Wye Valley. The main attraction (apart from the natural beauty) is the Tintern Abbey founded by some funky monks way back in 1131. Thats crazy, even Mum wouldn't remember that! JOKING!! You can check out some cool photos of the abbey here
-> Pics. Pushing on to the border and we found ourselves crossing the Severn River on the Severn Bridge, one of two 3 km bridges linking the two countries. Alas, as quickly as it had appeared, almost immediately after reaching the other side into England the greenery subsided. Ah Wales...it was a place unlike I ever seen before and I can't wait to get more than a small taste.
It was getting on about 8pm but we were only 10 miles from Bath and I couldn't resist at least seeing a smidgen of it while we were here. Deja vu! Driving into the spa city of Bath provided the best overall views of the town and we could see a plethora of houses built up on the sides of the hills. Or what I thought were hills. Just read that Bath was built in the mouth of an extinct volcano! Thats how they get the hot water! We didn't stop as parking spaces were as rare as rocking horse shit but we managed a bog lap of town and were quite impressed with the fancy architecture and scenery and have also added this to the list of places that
we must return to. We ended up getting back to London about 10.30pm, what a day!
Wednesday 9th May Happy Birthday K Bubs!
After work I tubed it over to Covent Garden which just so happened to be near the Royal Drury Lane Theatre, which just so happened to be showing "The Lord Of the Rings" musical, and it just so happened today was it's premier performance and it just so happens I had procured 2 tickets to said performance several weeks prior. After walking past the small string band entertaining the shoppers at the Covent Garden Markets I found the ol' Drury, said to be the most haunted theatre in the world. It has been whispered that a few thespians had croaked it within these walls including one poor chap who had his eye socket smashed in with the end of an umbrella during a disagreement with a fellow actor. Another grisly discovery had been the skeleton found locked in a chest behind a hidden wall with a dagger still firmly lodged in its chest (or what was left of it). Anyway, enough history lessons, we got our seats (which I think were designed by Hobbits,
no legroom!) and whilst waiting for the show we watched a bunch of little Hobbits running around on stage and through the crowd. One even stopped at Emma and said "Ooo pretty lady" in a Hobbity type voice.
When the show started I realised why it took them years of preparation to arrive at this point (the musical was actually being planned before the movies were thought of). The stage was like a huge jigsaw puzzle with every piece, computer controlled and able to move up and down to create different scenes. The lighting shone different textures onto the stage, much like a computer game, creating leaves on the ground or fire and lava etc depending on the scene. The actors were very good, there wasn't a huge amount of singing which I thought was good in this case, but it was Gollem who was the crowd favourite and who I liked the most. His mannerisms, movements and ssssspeech couldn't have matched the cgi screen version any better. Oh, they even had Ents!! Guys on 20 foot stilts dressed up as trees with long beards. You don't see that in a musical very often. Shelob the giant spider looked
Rock Hoppin
Through The Forest Of Dean so good he got a round of applause just for appearing. The only hiccup during the night was an audio problem which lasted 5 minutes, but for a 3 hour show on opening night they all did extremely well. I think Wicked had better watch out. If you're interested you can see what I'm raving about and check out a few videos of the musical at their official site here -> http://www.lotr.com/showfootage.php.
Saturday 12th May Had to work today, another 12 hourey. Gotta love time and a half though and to top it off Eiji my boss threw Luke and I £20 to go and grab a few drinks afterwards. We crossed the Thames via the Millennium Bridge (someone tried to jump off it the other day) and settled down by the water for a couple of pints of Guinness.
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