Staying Local in 2025

2025 was a year of local exploration, mainly due to an aging pet that could not be left home alone or with a pet sitter. It was a year of exploring new trails in familiar areas, a new to us National Park, and treading familiar paths along the way too. The Spring kicked off with some fine and dry weather, so the first camping trip of the year was to the beautiful Exmoor National Park, an area of Somerset/Devon we visit often!.

Porlock Marshes

The theme of fine and dry (and hot weather) made camping an easy choice for local trips in 2025, and campsites were definitely booked up. The UK MET office in fact have announced that 2025 has been the sunniest on record, although as a compose this post in mid-December those days seem like a distant memory!.

In June we travelled to the New Forest National Park in Hampshire, camping at Black Knowle close to the town of Brockenhurst. Our stay in late June was during a heat wave (30c +), unfortunately having an aging Cat along with us made it hard to to explore in the heat. The New Forest is famed for its Ponies, we were not quite expecting them to be everywhere in the park wandering at leisure, which sadly does sometimes end in tragedy on the roads.

New Forest Ponies

New Forest Ponies

The New Forest Pony is not the only free roaming animal within the park, there are also donkeys, cattle and pigs. You may also stumble across wildlife such as reptiles and birds, in fact a large Grass snake sunning itself on a trail gave me a fright as it quickly slithered away.

Highland Coo

There is more to the New Forest than just "forest" and "heathland", the Beaulieu river and coastal areas are of interest too (Bucklers Hard, Lymington and Hurst Castle etc), we will certainly return to the area, but hopefully not during a heat wave.

We are lucky enough to be able to travel/camp outside of the UK School holidays (July-September), which means we avoid the crowds generally. Another National Park I had wanted to check off the list was Snowdonia/Eryri National Park in North Wales, the last time I had been there was back in the 1990's. In September we headed with the caravan to Llangollen, staying at a stunning campsite called Ty Ucha.

Stunning Llangollen

Llangollen Steam Heritage Railway

Within striking distance of Llangollen are many many North Wales highlights, and one "quirky tourist town" worth a visit (entrance fee applies) is Portmeirion. The town was built between 1925-1975 as a "folly"/visitor attraction, the village has been used as a filming location, including for the 1960's show the "Prisoner".

Portmeirion

Portmeirion

A little closer to Llangollen is the spectacular Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, which is equally as impressive as any of the natural sights you can find on Snowdonia. The Aqueduct and Canal were built by Thomas Telford in the late 18th Century and are a World Heritage Site. You can walk or float across the Aqueduct, but you definitely need a head for heights!.

Canal barge on the Aqueduct

Aqueduct viewed from river level

Leaving North Wales behind in late September, Autumn in the SW of England soon started to arrive. Autumn (and Spring) are my favourite seasons, a dry 2025 summer meant the colours were particularly vibrant.

Somerset Cider Apple Season

Exmoor National Park, Somerset

National Trust Stourhead, Wiltshire

Autumn is Fungi season