Lydiard Park

This week I returned to yet another place that I hadn't visited since my childhood: Lydiard Park. It's a huge country park near Swindon featuring a grand manor house, an 18th century walled garden, a parish church and a lake. I actually think it's been my favourite lockdown outing so far; it's just a really scenic place and so spacious. It felt like a very safe destination to visit during this current period, where travel is tricky to say the least.

The first part of the park we saw was the Ice House. When I read those two words on the direction sign, I was pretty excited. My mind was conjuring up images of a building akin to Elsa's ice palace in Frozen. However, when we arrived in the corner of the woods where the Ice House was located, this is what we found:

Not quite what I'd been hoping for! It turned out to be a building where ice is stored, as opposed to a building made out of ice. Maybe "The Ice Storage House" would be a better name for it...

But the rest of the park was definitely not disappointing, as there's so much nature to see there. I really liked seeing all the towering trees, which were so much bigger than most of the trees in England.

Next we saw Saint Mary's church, a typical English country church, which has origins in the 13th century.

We had a look through the gates of the 18th century walled garden. Unfortunately it's closed at the moment, probably because it wouldn't be easy to socially distance on its narrow paths. But it's still a pretty place to see from outside.

Then we walked over to a field full of beautiful ponies. (Okay, so this might be the main reason why Lydiard Park has been my favourite lockdown outing so far!)

After saying hello to the lovely horses, we went to see the house, which is a very impressive building.

Near the house, there's a small lake inhabited by many ducks, swans and other birds. It was very peaceful to watch them swimming around.

All in all, it was a great morning out, and I'm sure we'll go back in the future.

It's good to know that even during this pandemic, there are still various travelling experiences we can enjoy. However, I have to admit that I can't wait for travel to return to normal again. Well, maybe not quite normal again; there are changes that should be made in terms of sustainability and mass tourism. But I am missing the freedom we had before, and I'm dreaming of exploring new places and of course, starting my new life in Chile...

The world is opening up again now, and that's both exciting and worrying. While I'm of the opinion that we can't feasibly stay stuck at home forever, and that safe travel can be possible if done very very cautiously, sadly a lot of people don't seem to want to follow the rules. Just look at what happened in Bournemouth the other week! I had no idea when we went there last year that it would be the must-visit destination for summer 2020...

Despite my concerns, I have planned a short-haul break away in September, but I'm holding off on actually booking anything until I feel more confident about travelling again.

It's a good thing that there are still several more local places that I've yet to tick off on my lockdown travel list! Next week, we're planning to go to a destination that I've never been to before and which I'm very excited to see. It's only about an hour away in the car, but judging from the pictures on its website, it looks like it could be somewhere much further afield...