Hay on Wye

From Gloucester the circus headed to Hay on Wye for. It is one of our biggest jumps which takes two hours and takes us to another country, Wales. A far cry from a three day train run though. We were here for the Hay Festival.

Before when we have done the festival we have been down by the river but this year (and last year) we were right in the town centre in the grounds of the castle which is beautiful but very tight so we had to leave the car behind. This isn't too much of a problem though as you really don't use your car very much here unless you want to to pop over to England and visit the Co-op. Also because we are right in the town we have to be fairly quiet which meant no opening party which use to be tradition here but it also meant the rest of the time it was fairly quiet so there are bonuses I suppose. The main thing we missed being at the castle was being right next to the river which was always great fun; swimming, fishing, borrowing Bobs boat.

I booked Willow into a few workshops, as I did previous years. Those years though she wasn't working in the show and I think in hindsight it may have been to much for her as she was quite tired. Even so she enjoyed herself and enjoyed the time spent down at the festival. She made a silent film, cooked strawberry shortbread, was involved in the storyboard part of a new film being made and went on a treasure hunt among other things. Tweedy also went to a couple of events.

Hay on Wye is best know for its book shops and there are a lot of them, over 30. Specialist book shops and cheap book shops.

There isn't a supermarket in Hay which does add to its charm. You have to buy your meat from a butchers, your bread and cakes from the bakers and your veg from the fruit and veg shop. There is also a really nice deli/health food shop and a spar. If you want anything bigger to do your food shopping you have to walk in to England and go to the Co-op. This isn't as bad as it sounds as it is only a mile at the most. There is a pretty good hardware store, a launderette that sort of does the job, a post office, a Chinese take-away (Chop Suey House), a really good Indian restaurant called 'Red Indigo' and a variety of pubs. The closest pub to the castle was 'The Blue Boar' which did a really nice steak. So all in all most things you need for a couple of weeks.

When we arrived back in the UK we spent six weeks in Truro, then about four at my Mum and Dads before moving to Folly Farm for a few months. All of which have been fine, so it is really strange that once you get back on the road, two weeks suddenly feel so long. It felt like we where there forever which isn't a negative on the town it is just those itchy feet started and it was time to move. I'm sure for me it didn't help having no internet connection pretty much the whole time we were there.