A Whole Heap of Nature

Today was brilliant; especially if we ignored the hangovers. We got up as early as our heads would allow, and made our way into the countryside for a walk, stopping off in Hay for some picnic lunch. We had planned on walking along the Wye, up the mountain and back to the car, but we ended up spending hours walking a few miles up and down the river as it was so incredible. We spotted a kingfisher, an extremely low-flying buzzard (I've never seen one so close before), hundreds of giant herons, and a little otter enjoying his lunch just as we were tucking in to ours on the river bank. As we were eating, with no warning at all, two giant bomber planes appeared from behind the trees and flew over the river just in front of us. We all looked at each other and froze in disbelief; once the absolute fear that they were about to crash disappeared, we couldn't quite believe it had happened. The sight was so much in odds with our surroundings. Very surreal. When the otter went off for a nap, we continued our walk, playing in trees and paddling in the river along the way. The only way to top off such a great afternoon was to stop in Hay for an ice cream before heading back home to make a curry. Carl arrived from London in the evening, and we spent a chilled night watching a film.