South West Holiday - Bristol

Wednesday 5th August
We had a bit of a tour of the South West this year.

The weather was awful when we left home but we had a good journey,and arrived on site at about 2. It was dreadfully muddy and we had to be towed onto the site. Not a good start! We are staying with the Avon and Bristol DA for the Balloon rally. It was not a brilliant site being on a slope and sandwiched between the railway and the Bristol flyover but was a good base for seeing the hot air balloons and visiting the Banksy exhibition which was showing in the city.
Thursday 6th August
We were up earlyish, and after breakfast set off for a walk to the park and ride into Bristol which was good value at £2.50 return for both of us. We got off near the city and after getting a bit lost we found our way to the city museum to see the Banksy exhibition. There was a 3hr queue but it was quite fascinating watching the people in the queue. It turned out to only be a 2 hr wait, but it started to rain so we were soaked by the time we got in. It was very good but some exhibits were quite moving whilst others were clever. His art was placed among the real art as though to mock it. We also saw some of his work on walls of buildings and suspect a tour round the city spotting art would be interesting.

After tea we went up to the Balloon fiesta. Where we took part in the Geocachers Flash Mob event. At 8 pm a cacher blew a whistle and all the cachers converged on the spot. The idea was to blow up a balloon, sign the log, take some photos and then disperse within 15 minutes. There must have been about 200 cachers there and it was a very surreal experience.
We then walked to the arena and watched the night glow. It was very good, about 30 hot air balloons in the centre and burners round the outside, switching on and off to music followed by a firework display. We fought our way through the crowds and got home at about 11.
Friday 7th August
At 7am there was a mass balloon launch with about 100 balloons taking off. After watching the balloons we set off on a walk. We followed a footpath along lanes and through woodland. It was very overgrown in places and we were followed by a herd of cows in one field although they lost interest. We had lunch at the Welford arms, very good value, and then continued our walk. This is where it went wrong, it was not well signposted and there was a locked gate beside the sign.
We climbed over and found the next stile, which we crossed into a field of cows. They followed us across the field and we only just got across the stile. We walked across the next field where the cows also followed us. We got across the busy A38 with difficulty and had trouble finding the path, which had been diverted. We found a path, crossed the field where a herd of young cows chased us. And at the next field larger cows surrounded us snorting. I was terrified by the time we got through the gate. We followed the diversion but still found we were off course. We climbed a gate and walked back to the road and walked further down the road to the lane. This turned into the lane our campsite was on. We got back feeling very stressed and found the gas had run out!
Sunday 9th August
We woke to another mass launch, this time with the wind in a different direction so the balloons were coming much closer, 1 right over the field. The RAF balloon did not get enough height and came down next to the railway. We managed to move the car out of the field which had dried up quite a bit and drove to Weston super mare for the UK 2nd geocaching mega-event held at the Winter Gardens. We met the Web Rat and the Rascal Gaskels, geocachers from our local area and then went to find some lunch - fish and chips eaten on the prom, and then found some caches which had been placed specially for the event. We found about 8 during a very hot walk around the town and then went back for the closing ceremony.We got home in time to see the last mass balloon launch.