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UK Tourist & Leisure Attractions

Belinda and Mike - follow our tourist travels in the UK

Arundel weekend break in West Sussex April 2006 - page 2

On the Sunday of our Arundel weekend break we visited Arundel Castle, touring both the castle and gardens.  In the afternoon we moved on to Arundel Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre.  Contrasting with yesterday, it rained all day!  Bummer!
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Hurry up Mike, let's get outta the rain! Arundel Castle
At the entrance to Arundel Castle on the wet Sunday we paid an expensive £12 for entry.  And they don't permit photo's to be taken in the castle!

Hurry up Belinda, let's get outta the rain! Mike & Arundel Castle
The grounds of Arundel Castle were a little disappointing, they'll probably look better later in the year when more flowers are in bloom.
 

Arundel Castle Tea Garden
The Tea Garden wasn't open, but anyway the gardens in this area weren't looking up to much.  Arundel Castle is yet another attraction where photography isn't allowed inside, it really annoys us when you pay a lot at attractions then find they don't permit photography.

On the way up to The Keep at Arundel Castle
This is the final bit on the way up to The Keep, a total of - well, a lot of steps!
 

Mike on top of the world, or at least the castle!
Well, you always take a picture like this after all those steps, don't you!  Please see our UK tourist links page for the Arundel Castle website.

View from The Keep over the Sussex downland
From The Keep a good view could be had of approaching armies in the olden days, in our case over the Sussex downland towards the River Arun.
 

Arundel Castle courtyard
This shot shows the inner courtyard at Arundel Castle on the way down from The Keep.  This area hasn't public access, yet it looked better kept than the main castle gardens!

Arundel Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre
In the afternoon we moved on to the Arundel Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre just down the road from the castle.  Here's Belinda in the café finding out all about it.  Entrance cost £7
 

Swan keeping Belinda at bay
Belinda's trying to get in to the Wetlands Centre here, but this Swan's having none of it, it kept hissing and wouldn't let her in!
 

Start of the Discovery Trail at the Arundel Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre
However, she managed to sneak past it and, once in, we followed the Discovery Trail learning about all the wildfowl as we went along.  The Wetlands Centre consists of many lakes, reedbeds and wooded areas where the wildlife can thrive in its natural habitat, so Mike felt at home!

"Oh look! It's a lesser spotted Mike!"
Armed with the handy wildfowl leaflet, we worked our way round and tried to spot some of the 115 different species at Arundel Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre.

Wildfowl hiding from Belinda or Belinda hiding from the wildfowl?
From the various Hides we could get a good view of the wildlife without them seeing us.  Here's Belinda feeding them some of the wildfowl feed we purchased.
 

The large wetlands at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre in Arundel
This is the view from Ramsar Hide out onto the wetlands.  The Hide enables the ducks and birds to be observed with minimal disturbance.

A lovely day (not) for a cruise
There's a short boat cruise round the wetlands where a guide tells you all about the species as you pass them, unfortunately we didn't pass many.
 

I can't see any birds apart from the back of Belinda's head!
Arundel Castle in the background on the wetlands cruise.  The website link to the Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre is on our tourist links page.

Dodgy man alert, 'ere birdy, do you want a sweety!
Mike just can't resist chasing the birds!

Other castles visited include: Lewes, Ludlow & Stokesay, Dover, Hurst and Corfe.