We’ve lived just a few miles from Creswell Crags for nearly 8 years now, and now that we’re about to leave we finally got around to visiting. We wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been for the offtheroad gang ringing up to say that they were going and did we want to come along mind!
So there was the frantic running around and going out to do the shopping bit, where the children nearly reduced me to tears with their complete lack of cooperation, but somehow we scrambled into the car and were there first (be a bit embarassing if we hadn’t been, what with the comparative journey lengths!).
Big went to the loo so didn’t come in the main door, which meant it was only Small who jumped out of his skin when he caught sight of the stuffed hyena out of the corner of his eye! He recovered rapidly, realising that it wasn’t alive, and was fascinated by it for the rest of the day, telling Tim about it at length when we got home. Reconvened with Big and had a quick hard hat fitting for J and Small, both of them fine to have the hat, and the rest of us were sorted quite quickly as well. There were a couple of other couples on the tour with us – it always surprises me rather to see unaccompanied adults on trips like this, which I suppose speaks rather to my state of mind on learning, that I still kind of think it ought to have stopped when I left school.
Never mind. It didn’t, hasn’t and won’t I suppose 🙂 So we walked down to the gorge, and the chap, John, told us all about the history of the area before taking us off into Robin Hood’s cave. Goodness knows why it’s called that – to my mind Creswell is far more important and interesting than Robin Hood (now that I know a little about it all anyway!) – he just had a better PR agent 😉 Kids managed fine in the cave, Big kept her sobbing down to a low level when we were asked to turn our headlamps off to see how dark it was, and didn’t shriek when John turned his torch back on aimed at a lion skull. Small was a star, volunteering to be first into the cave, grabbing the skull for a looksee very cheerfully, and generally not at all whimpering and moaning as he had when I suggested the trip first thing. (He was worried that the caves would be dirty and wet, as they were neither he was quite content.)
After we’d done the cave tour, we went back to the visitor centre and did some cave painting rubbings, then went round the (slightly feeble) educational displays, before winding up back in the gift shop. I bought Small a hyena and turtle for him to remember the trip by, and Big chose a fossil thing. I even bought myself an agate necklace -when I got it home rather wished I’d bought the piece of agate for half the price and strung it myself as the findings on this one are beyond cheap. Ah well, live and learn.
Lovely evening with takeout and surprise visit from my parents to try bridesmaid’s dress on Big – who lived up to her blog name by being far too large for the dress marked with her age. Mother will be taking another trip to Debenhams. I’m rather dreading the wedding, this is the third of my three sisters to get hitched, and I can’t help feeling that the spotlight will turn on me shortly thereafter. Ah well, bridges to cross later in the year I suppose. And now I must to bed, as I’m doing over time from 6am. Joy. But the last one. (We hope.)
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