text: With its carefully controlled, stage managed events and blandly repetitive slogans, the election campaign so far has been just a little bit boring. But not if you are on Nick Clegg's tour, where the Lib Dem leader has boarded his bright yellow 'fun bus' for a series of bizarre and unlikely photo opportunities which today saw him try his hand at ten-pin bowling. Aides say it is part of a deliberate strategy to get the Deputy Prime Minister out of London to meet normal people as they go about their daily lives. And if that means pulling pints, sipping cocktails, hurtling down a zipwire or chatting to Joey Essex or a hedgehog with a brain injury, Mr Clegg seems only to happy to oblige. Scroll down for video . Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg appears determined to enjoy the election campaign, spending his Sunday afternoon ten-pin bowling . The visit to the bowling alley in Colchester, Essex delighted local people, and the press pack who have complained that the campaign so far has been boring . Aides say it is part of a deliberate strategy to get the Deputy Prime Minister out of London to meet normal people as they go about their daily lives . The Lib Dem leader is touring the country in a bright yellow election battlebus fitted out with a radio studio to allow him to continue his regular broadcasts designed to drum up support before May 7. While strategists admit they struggle to compete in the 'air war' as Labour and the Tories dominate the TV and radio bulletins, they believe Mr Clegg's enthusiasm for getting out and meeting people is paying off. On the first day of the election campaign, he rushed from a meeting with the Queen at Buckingham Palace to a wildlife sanctuary in Solihull. There he was introduced to Humpty, a hedgehog with a head injury which means he keeps walking round in circles. Mr Clegg was told the animals have a lifespan of just five years, which he might be able to relate to as his party faces the prospect of being booted out of government for the first time since 2010. Nick Clegg and Lib Dem candidate Lorely Burt were introduced to Humpty, a hedgehog with a head injury which means he keeps walking round in circles . He took a short break from campaigning to take part in Go Ape Haldon Forest Park near Exeter on Wednesday . The Deputy Prime Minister tested the water, but declined to take a dip, during a visit to Bath Spa on April 6 . Mr Clegg faced a grilling from TOWIE star Joey Essex, who seemed a little confused about the Liberal Democrats’ name . Since then he has flown down a zipwire at a Go Ape park, tested the water at Bath Spa, planted flowers in Newtown, painted a picture at a nursery in Sheffield and watched racing wheels coming off the production in Chippenham. Food and drink has played a big part in the campaign too, from pulling pints in a Bath pub, to sipping cocktails in the sun in Southampton. He was even presented with cakes with his own face printed on them during a visit to the marginal seat of Poole and Mid Dorset. After launching the party's NHS manifesto, he was grilled by TOWIE star Joey Essex, who seemed a little confused about the Liberal Democrats’ name. Mr Clegg had to patiently explain that the party was not called ‘Demo-cats’, after Essex wondered why it had such a ‘weird’ name.’ ‘I’ve been Deputy Prime Minister for the last five years,’ Mr Clegg added. ‘That’s sick. I sort of rule Essex. I was going to say, someone else will be Prime Minister next? Are you going to be Prime Minister?' The Lib Dem leader, currently on around 8 per cent in the polls, had to admit this was unlikely. But the pair parted amicable, but not before posing for a selfie. The Lib Dem leader is touring the country in a bright yellow election battlebus fitted out with a radio studio to allow him to continue his regular broadcasts designed to drum up support before May 7 . Food and drink has never been far from the campaign, including pulling pint at the Green Park brasserie in Bath, with Lib Dem candidate Wera Hobhouse looking on . When Mr Clegg invited the ITV cameras into his home for a profile, he was seen glugging on white wine while wife Miriam spoke about the pressure of politics on family life . Mr Clegg has been seen drinking real lemonade in Holt, Wiltshire, a Banana Wharf Liberal Cocktail as he talks in Southampton and coffee in Kingston and Surbiton . A cupcake featuring the faces of Mr Clegg and Vikki Slade, the Lib Dem candidate in Mid Dorset and North Poole . A source close to Mr Clegg said: 'Nick as a leader of a major political party has always tried to do things differently. This election campaign is no different. 'It's lively, it's fun. He is interacting with normal people, doing things that they do every day, whether it is ten-pint bowling or going down the pub. 'The key is to get out there and get him talking to people in their ordinary environment. 'We are lucky to have a leader in Nick who is up for doing anything. He is not afraid of a bacon sandwich.' Labour leader Ed Miliband, who famously struggled to eat a bacon sandwich for the cameras, has been criticised for appearing throughout the election campaign in front of a red Labour backdrop. It was all child's play as he tried his hand at painting at the Old School House Nursery School in Crosspool near Sheffield . He watered and tended some some plants during a visit to the mental health charity The Ponthafren Association, in Newtown . On a visit to Dymag, a specialist manufacturer of high performance racing wheels in Chippenham, Wiltshire there were inevitable jokes about the wheels coming off the Lib Dem campaign . Before setting off for an afternoon ten-pin bowling, Mr Clegg used a speech in London to warn Conservative plans to raise billions of pounds from the 'grubby hands of scroungers' will not work. The Lib Dem leader promised to 'spread the burden' of deficit reduction, with cuts to welfare and Whitehall budgets along with tax rises aimed at the very wealthy. Car tax would rise by £25-a-year. But he scaled back his plans for a mansion tax, amid concern it could cost the party support in key seats in affluent parts of London. Mr Clegg set out plans for £5billion in new tax rises, £7billion raised from a crackdown on tax avoidance, £12 billion in public spending reductions and a £3 billion cut from welfare. But he mocked George Osborne's insistence that another £12billion can be found from the welfare budget. Mr Clegg warned that it was 'quite simply impossible' to find savings on that scale without causing 'real pain to millions of families' and some of the most vulnerable people.
target: Lib Dem leader embarks on bizarre photo opportunities to stay in the news .
  Aides say it is part of strategy to meet voters where they work and play .
  He has met a hedgehog and Joey Essex, pulled a pint and visited a spa .