Getting Outdoors in South Wales - October Edition
October has been a busy month for us, with lots of amazing weather leading to lots of outdoor adventures, as well as a half term full of travel. We ventured up to Yorkshire, the Lake District, the Loch Lomond National Park, Edinburgh Zoo and then back to Yorkshire and then home via Powis Caslte. Safe to say I’m enjoying a bit of time in November to stay still a little!
So without further ado, here’s how the month shaped up…
Monday 1st October - The National Botanic Garden of Wales
An unexpected invite to join some friends at the botanic gardens, saw October getting off to a good start. It was strange to be there without my own children, but it was still very lovely.
Wednesday 3rd October - Waterfall Country
I kicked off the month with a fun day of exploring Waterfall country in Neath with a friend. She is far braver than I, and whilst I was content to enjoy the waterfalls from the safety of dry land, she felt the need to jump right in, literally, and get in the water. Brrr.
Saturday 6th October - Climbing
An indoor activity but I feel it’s one worth mentioning here. I took my Daughter (aged 10) to Dynamic Rock in Clydach for a fun morning of indoor rock climbing. A great way to introduce your little ones to climbing.
Wednesday 10th October - Horton to Port Eynon and Rhossili to Fall Bay
When the weatherman tells you it might just be the hottest October day in years you go big or go home. I spent the morning with a friend walking along the beach at Horton down to Port Eynon and back, and then took myself over to Rhossili for a solo walk round to Fall Bay, one of my favourite places on Gower.
Sunday 14th - A walk in the Woods
A day spent at home with some lovely friends over for lunch, but we couldn’t waste the good weather inside and so we went for a walk in our local area. We have managed to suss out a 3 mile circular walk we can do from our house that sticks to woodlands and has a park at the halfway point. It does the trick when we can’t always get out in the car! It’s well worth following any footpath signs you might spot near your own home, we only found this walk by following signs and seeing where we ended up!
Clyne Gardens
I then had a family session at Clyne Gardens in the afternoon. A perfect location to spend a sunny afternoon as the sun breaks through the trees to create some magic.
Thursday 18th - Southerndown and Ogmore
Work took me to Cardiff on this particular day, but I managed to squeeze in a lovely walk at Southerndown with a friend, and afterwards headed to Ogmore for a really fun Engagement Session. (Which you can see more of here.)
Friday 19th - Colby woods
A random Inset day meant I had to find a way to entertain the kids on my own for a day; enter Colby Woods, one of our favourites and a big hit with all 3 of our kids.
The walled garden at Colby Woods.
Saturday 20th - Horton and Rhossili
Sometimes on the weekend we don’t have any big plans and the weather is good. It’s not that often that both of those things happen at the same time, but on this particular Saturday they did. So we packed up a picnic tea and headed to Horton for the afternoon. Realising on our way home the sun would be setting soon (one of the few perks of these dark evenings) we drove round the corner to Rhossili so we could get a great view of the sun falling into the sea.
Sunday 21st October - Misty Morning
On this particular morning I opened the curtains to be greeted with the thickest fog and some wonderful light bursting through. So naturally I convinced my daughter to wrap up in a blanket and go for a little walk in the woods near our house. Well worth dragging her away from early morning tv!
Clyne Gardens
We then enjoyed a fun afternoon of leaf throwing and admiring all the wonderful autumn colours in Clyne Gardens.
Wednesday 24th - Kayaking at Oxwich
Our Kayak usually gathers dust in the autumn/winter as the kids aren’t as keen and the evenings are too dark, but on this particularly sunny Wednesday I managed to sneak a trip in with a friend when the children were at school. It was heavenly.
Saturday 27th- Sunday 28th - Yorkshire and the Lake District
It was half term right at the end of October, so we headed up to Yorkshire to visit my parents. They actually live really close to the Lake District, so we had one day enjoying their local town and another day exploring two National Trust places in the Lake District; Sizergh Castle and Fell Foot at Lake Windermere. If you get chance to go to Sizergh Caslte, it’s well worth popping into the local cafe just down the road, they had some amazing local produce for sale. I’m not going to lie though, if you decide to go inside the castle with your children beware they will probably get told off! Our 3 were probably the best behaved they’ve ever been inside a fancy national trust place, but they’ve never been told off more. It was a little off putting! But the grounds are very lovely.
And Fell Foot was amazing. Gorgeous views and a really fun park for the kids to play on, which meant we could relax a little and enjoy the beautiful scenery.
Exploring Yorkshire.
Sizergh Castle and Lake Windermere…
29th October- 2nd November - Scotland
And then we headed to Scotland and you can read all about our adventures there in the blog posts below…
Such a fun filled October, and November is already shaping up to be another adventure filled month. So watch this space next month for our November round up! If you want to keep up with all the latest blog posts and news then sign up to our monthly newsletter below…
