Safari

Off on safari today!  Very exciting.  First off to Andy’s house for a tasty lunch, then into deepest darkest Sussex (I think – southern English geography is not my strong point) for a tour around the Knepp re-wilding project.  You can look up more on-line if you want, but basically it’s an arable farm/estate that they have just stopped actively farming.  So you have cows (wildish looking ones), pigs and deer just wandering about wherever they want and managing the landscape in their own way.  They are culled (and the meat sold) as necessary, and given basic welfare jabs, but otherwise left to their own devices.  Very cool idea, and great to see people are willing to take a risk on something like that (though in a lot of ways it just reminded me of my garden – perhaps I could give guided tours and call it a re-wilding project?)

Not sure I would need a truck quite the size of this one though...
 
And it was great to spend some time with Andy, who we don’t get to see nearly often enough.  The kids had fun, though this kind of thing is obviously more TallGirl’s thing than CarbBoy’s, and spotted lots of bugs and beasts.  Mr B spotted some kind of crane (I think) which they are just starting to re-introduce, so that was exciting.  I couldn’t see it as a bit of the crazy vehicle we were in was in the way and my neck wasn’t playing ball with excessive movement.
 
Later, back to Andy’s for dessert, cheese and making a dent in the fabulous stocks of wine he gets at work (he doesn’t really drink).  Then home to pretend I was going to pack, but actually I just watched the telly instead.