The early May bank weekend means only one thing, a trip to Dorset! š
This is what greeted us in Poole Harbour on the Saturday. Sun!
‘The Man’ wasnt feeling 100% so we stayed in the town, we shopped and relaxed but we did squeeze in a quick cache and dash on the way back to the hotel.
The next morning however we were back up to full health and headed to Holton Lee which we noticed had a good little circuit. What a good excuse for some caching!
Holton Lee is a wellbeing, discovery access centre and I personally thought its grounds were amazing. Check out what it does http://www.holtonlee.org
We started off walking and found the first few caches easily enough.
Then the beauty of the site really became apparent. There were sculptures:
Beautiful trees and plants:
Then there were the birds, animals and insects. 
The highlight for me was seeing a slow worn – I’d seen them before on posters and in books but to see a live one basking under a metal sheet was awesome.
They also had a quite amazing bird hide (with soft chairs) it faced out over a water inlet with rushes, with a well stocked feeding centre, which was surrounded by hedges and trees. In a very short space of time we saw, a pair of greater spotted woodpeckers, gold finches, nuthatches, crows, starlings, dunnocks, sparrows, coots, moorhens, a pheasant and a brimstone butterfly and a baby rabbit. 
The caches weren’t bad either.
This place also had a replica iron age hut – perfect for a history nerd like me!
It also had a stone circle (which was tricky to photograph)
The place also had plenty of what I like to term ‘nature’s treasures’ -those natural things you find when you’re out and about in the countryside. 
All in all it was a great days caching with a few smiley faces earned. š
smashingcaching 