Wye not

Bananablip and sakalasafari suggested a weekend outdoors in the Hay-on-Wye area. It's an area I know poorly so I jumped at the chance even though it involved fairly ambitious traversing of the country. We ended up on a hill in a bell tent in the village of Craswall, which was a delightful spot. Picturesque hills are not a common sight in Cambridgeshire, and the west of the country easily outdoes the east for landscapes.

We chugged into Hay-on-Wye, which with its bric a brac, feels like a more literary, less northern version of Last of the Summer Wine. The Richard Booth Bookshop is a true gem that catalysed the town becoming a centre for book trading. It claims to be the largest second-hand bookshop in the world. I only came away with 8, which could have been worse. Bulky to transport back halfway across the country.

A look over the river, a fizzy drink in a cafe with a good book-reading window bench, some hearty pub grub and some mozying around town, and we retreated to our tent on the hill to stay warm.