Chilli festival fun

On my drive to work I kept seeing signs for a Chilli Festival. We have never been to a chilli festival before, so on the last Bank Holiday of August we headed down to Bennington Lordship ready to set our mouths on fire. 

When we first arrived we were amazed at how many stalls there were selling curry sauces, chilli jams, chilli pastes, infused oils, chilli chocolate, local cheese and much more! There were also lots of chilli plants for sale.

Further into the grounds there were stalls selling hot food and drinks. We both started with some cheesy bites from a local cheese stall. Then I had a chicken curry. The curry was beautiful and the meat just melted in your mouth. A bit later Rob had sweet potato fries. He had to wait for a while for them but they were also extremely tastey.

Rob also had a couple of pints of alcoholic gingerbeer, which was certainly needed to cool our mouths down once we started trying some of the products. 

We sampled a few chilli products and Rob was determined to find the hottest chilli product. I think he certainly found the hottest chilli sauce in the form of Spicy Monkey!

The sauce made our noses run, eyes water, cough and I could even taste blood! It was insane. 

In the end we chose some mini pots of chilli jams from a man who had hundreds of mini pots for sale. We also got a pot of naga chilli peanut butter. The peanut butter is so hot! I have already taken it to work and my colleagues have also been blown away. 

The chilli festival was set in some beautiful grounds. Once we had burnt our tongues off we chilled by the river. 

We decided not to stay for the chilli eating contest as we were tired after the murder mystery trail the day before. We will definitely be returning to the chilli festival next year. It was fantastic to visit a new place and experience something new. 

Berkhamsted

A couple or weeks ago Rob arranged a wonderful date for us. He found out about a murder mystery trail that you could complete. The one we took part in was based around the little historical town of Berkhamsted. It was great to get some fresh air and explore somewhere new whilst completing the fun little task.

The trial began just round the corner from Berkhamsted Castle so we decided to have an explore.

Entry to the castle was free. There wasn't too much left of the castle but we climbed to the top and there were some great views over the town. There were lots of families around having picnics and playing in the grounds. It would be a great llass to return for another lazy afternoon. However we had other more pressing matters to attend to!

The trail had about 20 different clues that eliminated suspects and weapons that could have been used. Although the trail was aimed at children, the clues were not easy. I certainly claimed it was impossible a fair few times. Here are alme of the clues. 

There were some lovely sites as we went round. 

The walk took a couple of hours so we had some treats on the way round. This included sausage rolls, whippy ice creams and we also stopped for a beer at one of the pubs on the cabal when it started raining.

By the time the trail was finished we were knackered. We took our tired feet home, ordered an Indian take away and put our feet up on the sofa with Nelli.