Listening to the rain lashing the bedroom window in the early morning I had a notion it may be a good idea to visit the RSPB's Newport Wetland Centre. Why this came into my head I have no idea, though partly as Julie's back is still painful, so if we were going out a gentle amble seemed sensible. Partly too I'm missing going out watching wildlife, and this reserve is somewhere I've known about for decades but I've never visited it. And that's odd as we can almost see it from the the house in Somerset, as it is only 12 miles as the crow flies to this Welsh wildlife wonder. Sadly as we are not crows this meant a 38mile drive.
We got there in steady rain and talking to the welcome lady it became heavier. To delay going into the reserve we sat drinking a hot chocolate in the cafe looking out over the lake in front of the visitor centre. A moorhen was the only bird on the water the entire time. The rain eased so we ventured out, just as the rain returned and stayed with us all the way to the lighthouse. It was a deluge meaning all sensible birds had disappeared though on the shoreline curlew were calling as well as many mallard visible in the half light. Then to the south a postage stamp size patch of blue sky appeared, the rain eased and by the time we'd returned to the visitor centre the sun was out and a dry afternoon was in development.
But we really enjoyed our first ever walk around this reserve in the rain, just over a couple of miles this time. And being just 45 minutes away we will return on a sunnier day in the spring. A great place and fascinating being hard by the industrial landscape of Newport.
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