The butterfly in the coal mine

We wanted to walk to Symonds Yat Rock (stunning views, opportunity to see raptors) but it was cold and wet and I wanted to give my legs a rest.  June went on her own to the top while I sat in the car. She came back cold and wet.

Once she had warmed up we did a tour of a coal mine.  "Freeminers" have had the right to mine coal in the Forest of Dean for hundreds of years. We donned safety helmets with headlamps and our guide Richard, who has his own mine and sells coal to locals,  took us down a tunnel  about 200 feet underground, to tell us about mining.  They work in cramped spaces with hand tools, at the risk of suffocation from carbon dioxide or explosions from methane.  In Victorian times children as young as 5 sat in the dark, opening doors for the ponies, and when they were older wore a harness so they could drag coal from the coal face to the tunnels.  It was fascinating and horrifying.

Then we visited the Wye Valley Butterfly Zoo and took lots of photos of butterflies.

We took a boat cruise along the River Nye and saw a Kingfisher, a Swan and some Canadian Geese.

And then we went back to the B&B to rest until it was time for dinner, in a lovely local pub with an open fire. I have discovered non alcoholic beer and had a pint of Guinness.  British people allow dogs in pubs and on trains and other public places (and in the church at Dorstone).

We were going to see a field of bluebells but the lanes were so narrow and twisted we were worried about taking the car along them. The are places to pull over and let another car pass but it's very tight in places.