I’ve been a bit distracted lately. The kids started school and uni, respectively, and we have been staying at home more. The weather’s more unpredictable. The girl’s social life has really kicked in – tons of freshers parties, and she’s really living it up. The boy has been focusing more on his academics. It’s been a bit of a challenge for him moving from the more rote learning style in India to the very application-oriented approach here. Some of the subjects are also unfamiliar – history and geography is quite different here, and English is on another level altogether.
Despite all this, on a hot, dry day – increasingly a rarity – we visited Bushy Park. This is a royal park situated near Hampton Court Palace. The kids had visited the palace with their dad one weekday when I was busy with work, but they didn’t have the time to visit Bushy Park. So, I took them on the weekend.
What’s special about Bushy Park?
This is a royal park, which means it was originally land used by the royal family for hunting. They are now managed by a charity and are among the most famous parks in the UK, including Hyde Park, Regent’s Park, St. James’s Park, Greenwich Park, and others. Bushy Park isn’t as well known as the others, perhaps because it’s further away from the city proper.
What’s special about Bushy Park is the numerous deer that roam freely through the park.
It was wonderful to see the deer so comfortably moving around this space. They ignore us for the most part, and I wouldn’t advise approaching the deer or trying to feed them.
Most of the people in the park appear to be regulars, doing their usual jogging/walking/exercise rounds. There were hardly any people sight-seeing, which struck me as so odd. In India, if there were a park like this, there would be hordes of people jostling for space. Here, it was like any other public park. You don’t even have to buy a ticket! I guess deer here are as common as cows in India? That’s the only way for me to explain it.
Apart from the deer, there isn’t too much to see in the park. It’s not particularly scenic – especially when it’s so dry. We made a large round of the place and moved to a more shaded part of the park where it was more pleasant and where we didn’t have to squint into the sun.
We eventually came out of the wooded areas into the sun and proceeded to walk back to the entrance.
We were planning to exit the way we entered, but we spotted a walk with a statue at the end of it. So, we decided to walk toward it to see what was there. Turns out, it was this beauty.
We continued walking on, as our original exit was now too far off. We were getting tired, thirsty, and hungry, so we decided to stop for a bite as soon as we exited the park. And chose Lion Gate Café purely because of the pretty views.
The café is called Lion Gate Café because of the view of the lions from the balcony.
The food is decent too. Not too overpriced considering it’s in quite a touristy spot. We hung around the place a bit taking photos before making our way back home.
One of the nicest and most underrated things we did this year.
