Ashton Court

After visiting Berkeley Castle and the Bristol Zoo we found it to be 6 PM on a weekend and everything was closed. So we (okay David, since he was driving) decided to drive around a bit and see some things around Bristol. Since neither Lisa nor I had been across the Clifton Suspension bridge David decided that would be a good thing to do. Of course traffic actually trying to cross for good reason doesn't understand if you want to stop for a picture so we had to make do with driving as slow as we could without holding up traffic.


As we exited the bridge and were going to turn around to go back, we noted some big gates and found that they were the entrance to Ashton Court. Since we didn't have the 50p to recross the bridge, we were looking for another way back to our side of the river when we ran across another entrance to Ashton Court. The gates were still open and so we drove on in.


We parked among the other cars already in the lot and figured with this many people they can't possibly close the gates and trap everyone. We had seen a herd of deer as we drove in and saw there was a walk path so that you could look into the deer park. Lisa read over the information and noted the beautiful view of Bristol.



David and I proceeded along the path to see what we could see of the deer herd.


There were a couple of nice bucks among the herd


and there was one REALLY nice buck off by himself.


The only thing to quell the tranquility of the scene was one small child who was attempting to get the attention of the deer to look at her by yelling. I guess that would be the difference between protected deer and wild deer . . these deer didn't pay her any attention whatsoever. Having seen all we wanted to of the deer and wondering what else of this place might be open we wandered back toward the parking lot and the main building. As we wandered, we heard one mother exclaim to her young child, "hurry up or we'll miss the balloons." We were meandering with others now and as we rounded the bend we saw, to our surprise, a balloon launch in full swing. We were excited and stayed to watch the process.




We got giggles from the one balloon who had tied a pirate skeleton to its ropes.


David, having flown before with his family, was explaining about the parachutes in the top of the balloons to release air when needing to decend. As one of the larger balloons was being inflated, we noted that it had side chutes instead.


Then before we knew it, the balloons were starting to be off and away


And as some launched, even more were being filled. We had started watching 4 balloons but were now noticing we were watching close to 10


About this time, David felt a stick hit his foot and looking down saw Redge. Redge was looking for someone to play fetch with and figured David looked like a good candidate. David threw the stick and threw the stick and threw the stick. Every time Redge got it and brought it right back to lay at David's feet. We laughed and giggled at Redge's enthusiasm, all the time wondering where he had come from. About that time, Redge's owner approached and said that if he had his way he would play fetch until he dropped. She also commented that most people would have given up on the slimy stick by now, leaving Redge to find another playmate. After some more throws and then David refusing no matter how many time Redge dropped the stick ON him because Redge still needed the energy for the walk home, Redge decided to give it a rest.

Before they wandered on, Redge's owner thanked us for excercising her dog for her. She also let us know that if we enjoyed the deer park on the entrance side than we would probably enjoy the spotted deer on the other side of the park. We got some quick walking directions from her before they went.

We stayed and watched almost all the rest of the balloons launch and watched quite a few of them fly over the building and on toward the Bristol cityscape.


Then we decided to trek over for the other deer. These deer ended up not only being smaller and cuter, but much further away. Since none of us had thought to bring our binoculars for our trip to Berkeley and the Zoo, we didn't have them with us for this outing and therefore couldn't get the best look.


With the balloons all being launched, the deer all having been seen, some good playtime with a four-legged friend been had and it getting on towards 9 PM we decided it was time to consider heading out for something to eat. We stopped that night at The Fox in Yate and had a FABULOUS dinner.

Tomorrow would see Lisa and I on our own again for her last full day in Bristol.

To see all the pictures we took during our visit at Ashton Court, please review the following slideshow.


If you would like to see the videos we took of the balloon launch, please visit http://members.aol.com/cimberann/vance/ashton.htm.