The Cotswolds

We have had Poppa Richard here with us in Knowle since the weekend and yesterday he took us to Cotswold Wildlife Park. To get there we drove through the most beautiful little towns with names like Moreton-on-Marsh and Stow-on-the-Wold (wold means hillside) that make up the region called the Cotwolds. Six English Counties make up parts of the Cotswolds Region (Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Somerset & Wiltshire) and is distinctive because of the belt of rich limestone and of course by the beautiful cottages, fine buildings, and churches built of this material. The villages we passed through looked like time had stood still for 300 years. There were Union Jack flags and bunting up on all the shops and houses and we thought this was because of the Olympics but we were told it was because of the Queens Jubilee. Having just read four Jane Austen novels in a row Caro felt right at home! 

Stow-on-the-Wold

The Cotswold Wildlife Park is set in the gardens of a beautiful 17th Century Manor House. The Rhino and Zebra enclosure is right on the front lawn of the house and the penguins and meercats live in the walled garden which used to contain the kitchen garden for the house. Bella and Sari enjoyed stepping through the gate into the walled garden as they have just read The Secret Garden with Caro - it was very exciting to find penguins in this garden!

Noah and Sari watching the penguins



Bella and the penguins


One of the highlights was seeing the family of meerkats. They had tiny little babies who tried to stand up on their hind legs like their parents but kept toppling over as they got sleepy!

Noah and the family of Meerkats