Family Heritage in Dunstable

Over the Easter long weekend, The Boy and I took a little overnight jaunt to the small, sleepy and somewhat dreary town of Dunstable. Why, you may ask, on earth did you go there?

Well, it is the town where my father grew up before he immigrated to Australia in the early 1960s. So really, it was my duty as a loving daughter to go and check it out.

So - Dunstable, in the heart of Bedfordshire is not much to look at. The town centre is much neglected with closed down and boarded up stores as far as the eye can see.

The Dunstable Downs, however, are miles of open grassy chalk lands that are a walkers, kite flyers or gliders delight. In fact, from the tip of the downs you can apparently 5 counties. On a clear sunny day anyway, which are far and few at this time of year.

So we walked up hills (or rather, I moaned, puffed and nearly died walking up a hill), rang over green hills and generally enjoyed being outdoors in fresh air. 

If you are visiting Duntable though for some unknown reason, it would please you to know that only 15 minutes away, down a sleepy country lane, is the very awesome Whipsnade Zoo, with elephants, giraffes, rhinos and all sorts of other lovely animals to admire.

My personal favourite was the baby elephants and fluro coloured flamingos. The Boy, as always, loved the penguins.

So, all in all, Dunstable is a bit of a snoozefest, however I'm glad we went. I'm glad that I saw the town where my family was from, and my great uncle's grave and all that. I'm also very glad my Grampy packed up the family and got the hell out.

xx