[July 2021] Richmond Park in a suburb of London, is said to be the largest royal park in London with 2500 acres.
It is famous for having about 600 deer.
I had been there by my friend’s car a long time ago, but it was an unexplored place for my husband.
Because, even when I searched online, we could not know how to get there by public transportation, so we had been avoiding it.
This time, we decided to take the plunge.
We only had a rough plan to go to the station and ask someone how to get there, but this was a big hit.
There was a manned information centre on the premises of Richmond Station, and leaflets and maps were also available.
We took bus 371 from the station and got off at the stop called “American University”, and the entrance to the park was just around the corner.
This entrance is called Richmond Gate.
And as soon as we entered, there were deer!
I was surprised because I was half expecting that we wouldn’t see any deer by just walking around this huge park.
There were many deer with white spots on their backs, like Bambi.
It could be a family.
One of them showed a big jump for us.
After taking many pictures here, the flock moved on and we also started walking along the pathway.
On this weekend day, there were a lot of serious cyclists and joggers, as well as a lot of people like us strolling around.
But this park has only natural fields and trees, and no matter how far you go, there was nothing else.
About half way past this main path, we suddenly saw a flock of deer in the back of the trees on the right.
So we went off the road into the field towards them, watching for the dungs.
But, of course, the flock left while we were on the move.
Except one.
Poorly, this one seemed to be lost and was crying with the sound of muddy “A” .
I did not know that deer make such a voice.
Even though it’s large, it’s only a park, so I supposed this deer would be able to join others soon.
After passing the forest, my husband witnessed a snake.
I didn’t see it, but it was apparently a magnificent dark-coloured snake that was about 80 centimetres long and meandered.
After passing there, we saw a white building.
I thought it could be Royal Ballet School, and I was right.
A dedicated bus was parked.
I couldn’t meet any aspiring ballerinas, though.
We took a break where there was a pond.
When we checked the map, we found that this was the centre of the park.
As the clouds looked menacing, we decided to return to the same gate from here.
On the way, I saw a rusty gate surrounded by a fence to keep people out.
We said, “Most of the deer must be in this,” “I’m glad we saw the deer first,” “It would have been boring without it.”.
But when we approached the Richmond Gate, we found that the deer family we saw earlier was sitting as if they were posing.
They sat side by side with the clan’s boss in the centre.
They did not care even if people were near them.
We took some more pictures of them and left the park.
Then we went home and ate the venison that had already been prepared, which was delicious.
