Water offers the most fun! And water is in abundance in South and West Wales. It’s good to paddle in, to swing across on a rope, to jump across on stepping stones or just to walk alongside enjoying the wildlife and the streamside flowers. At the National Trust’s Colby Woodland Garden, everyone, especially children, is encouraged to have fun with the waters of the Colby Stream, from racing yellow plastic ducks under the bridges to pond dipping. Otters, water shrews, dragonflies and dippers enjoy the watery landscape too. More sedately, in the walled garden, you can walk beside an elegant rill that runs down from the white painted gazebo.

At Penllergare near Swansea the River Llan is a star performer. It gushes out from under the M4 into a serene lake, before tumbling over the waterfall dam with three cascades where salmon and trout can often be seen, in season, trying to make the leap up the falls. The calm surfaces of the pond at Scolton in Pembrokeshire give visitors ample opportunity to watch the ducks and wild birds from secret hides on its edges. Aberglasney’s woodland streams make a safe haven for shrews, while otters come up from the River Tywi to feast on the easy pickings of freshwater eels in the garden pond.