Calke Park Walks

For the weekend following my birthday, my lovely Husband arranged a birthday surprise for me! After a yummy dinner at Ask in Ashby, we stayed in the Staff of Life, a lovely pub and B&B in the village of Ticknall, just around the corner from our favourite place. The last big surprise he organised for me was also a trip to Calke Abbey, where he proposed to me in front of the house! Two years later we were married in the Riding School, so it is just a little bit special!

After a good nights sleep and a hearty cooked breakfast, we donned our wellies and Dan produced a map with some walks he had been planning for us since Christmas.

We walked around the parkland and I finally found the second bird hide! Yipee!

We made it back to the main house area with plans to have a cup of tea and a scone, however I don't think either of us could have guessed that the lambing event would be quite so popular! We gave up on the idea of tea and cake and went for a wander around the gardens instead, and we even had a peek in to Home Farm to see some of the new arrivals. The little fellow featured with his Mummy was less than an hour old!

Then we carried on our walk past the ponds and through Serpentine Woods and back to the car. In all, we walked about 6km I think we worked out, we definitely worked up our appetite for a Sunday Dinner when we got home!