Leicester again.

After working all day yesterday DD set off for Leicester, aiming to drive there herself for the first time. She normally gets the train there to see her boyfriend (or, as was the case last weekend, we took her part way).  She was only staying for one night, just to get the driving experience more than anything, but it meant taking two vehicles - her car that she was driving, and our van, as we would be driving back with her today and needed the van so that we could have a wild camp night. We'd decided that I would sit in with DD until she got to Keele motorway services, and then DH would sit with her for the rest of the journey. So DH got to drive the van for the first bit, then I took over when we swapped. 

We'd already sorted out where we were going to be staying over - another pub stop just outside Leicester, and one still serving food until 10pm as we knew we were going to be late. So, a pint and a decent meal later we set the van up for the night, and of course, Oscar went straight under our bed in to his little den for the night.  

This morning we had a quick brew before leaving the pub carpark and heading out to Watermead Country Park north of Leicester. We don't really know the area so had asked DD to ask her boyfriend if he knew of any local country parks, and this was one of his suggestions. So we sat and had bacon butties while looking across a lovely lake, watching the ducks and moorhens. Lovely! 

After breakfast we set off walking with Oscar and had a lovely two hour walk round. 

We managed to find a few geocaches, and saw some very cute ducklings ......

......and some large stone shapes .......

......and even had an ice cream part way round!

DD met us for lunch, and then we all set off, with DD and DH together for the first bit, and then me with DD for the motorway bit. 

So DD has now successfully driven to Leicester and back, and seems more or less OK with it. It means she won't have to rely on trains to get her there and back (there have been quite a few delays on recent train journeys for her), and builds up her confidence on driving on strange roads (and it's given us some lovely nights away in the van!). 

And I'm now sat with 3 of my 4 cats on my knee!!