It's the second week of the Easter Holidays and we are staying at Bredon Vale Camping and Caravanning in Norton, Worcester. We chose this site as it was ideally situated between the Malvern Hills and Stratford Upon Avon to visit Shakespeares Birthplace as my son has just studied at school his first piece of Shakespeare text.
The campsite is intimate and peaceful with stunning views of Bredon Hill and The Malverns a bit further in the distance. It also has lovely clean amenities and a small shop with essentials, croissant orders for the morning and some carefully curated walks from the campsite itself. Check out the walkabout in this campsite vlog.
The first day was a wet one, so I had already purchased tickets for Cadbury World in advance. The kids really enjoyed themselves, getting hands on with chocolate, had fun on the interactive rides and the 4D cinema was a massive hit, with moving seats for added thrills. Every step through the tour you are given bars of chocolate to take with you, and as an adult I really enjoyed the advertising alley with all the old adverts and the museum of old Cadbury's products; it was full on nostalgia for my childhood. With a massive haul of Cadburys chocolate from the shop (at factory prices) we took our stash back to the caravan, (in the knowledge that it would probably last our duration only)!
The next day was a totally new day and the sun we had been longing for came out. I couldn't give up the opportunity of fair weather so we decided to visit Malvern and walk in the hills up to the highest point, affectionately named the Beacon, it's proper title, Worcestershire Beacon.
This was. a 4 mile walk that started at the Great Malvern Priory, taking us up to the Elgar Statue and the Malvhina Fountain. Across the road you will find the Unicorn pub where you turn left and make your way up into the hills. This pub had a blue plaque telling us that C.S. Lewis used to frequent this place often before a walk in the hills and another plaque a bit further up on a nice stately home told us that Roosevelt convalesced here once as Malvern is a well known spa town with its healing waters.
The ascent is adjacent at times to a trickling stream, which the dog loved as a constant source of refreshment before getting to up on the hill tops; from here you are then winding your way up to the Beacon. At the top we took the necessary trig point proof and long admired the 360 views whilst eating our picnic. The view also to the other hills in the Malverns is stunning and you can see why this is an area of outstanding beauty.
The continuation of this circular walk takes us back to us down on the east side through some lovely woodland dotted with spring bluebells and forget-me-nots to a lake in an old quarry. This path then steers you to St Ann's well where you can drink the fresh spring water. There is a cafe here should you come unprepared, our boys opted to get an ice cream whilst the dog (and me) had more of the fresh spring water.
The path down from St Ann's Well takes you back into Malvern, where there are lots of shops to look around and I was happy to see the shear amount of bookshops dotted around. We finished with a nice pint of beer at the Weavers of Malvern which was a very vibey place playing the sort of music I enjoyed. I could have stayed until well in the evening with my husband but as we had two kids and a dog in tow, I've parked that idea for a future getaway.
