On Sunday we decided we would take a trip into the forest and visit Thorndon Country Park in Essex and it’s famous Gruffalo trail. I don’t know if it’s really famous or not but amongst my friends (who mainly live in East London) it does seem to be, with Facebook photographs popping up right, left and centre of their children finding the wooden Gruffalo characters amongst the trees! We’ve been meaning to go for some time now but haven’t got round to it so as the sun was due to shine we thought Sunday would be perfect!
I googled the park to see what was what and found out that when you arrive you can go to the reception and pick up a bag of books and activities to take on the trail with you. The scheme is called ‘Read With Me Under A Tree‘ and just like a library, you borrow the books for your stay and then hand them back at the end of the day. We borrowed a family story bag which had around 4 books for Florence, a couple of baby ones for Jimmy, some older children tales and a few things for the adults too. On top of the books are packs of cards with ideas of fun things to do in the forest; ‘shut your eyes and talk about what you can hear’ was a really fun one for us with Florence saying ‘Well all I can hear is that other Daddy over there talking LOUDLY’!
Once we’d sorted ourselves out and bought our map for the Gruffalo trail (50p), we had a little something to eat before we set off. There are many picnic benches and grassy areas so it’s an ideal picnic location, if the weather is good of course!! And then we were off! Florence absolutely adored looking for all the characters on the Gruffalo trail and we followed the easy to read map pointing out things and climbing trees along the way.
I knew what we were about to find because I’ve seen so many of my friend’s Facebook pictures but Florence didn’t really know and it was so exciting for her! She had a great time, look at our own pictures to see why!
The characters are set apart from each other to make the trail fun but they’re not so distanced that it’s not possible for a tiny tot to walk it. At each area there are lots of other interesting things and we had such fun climbing trees and pretending to be ‘The Big Bad Mouse’ on a twig!
We were so lucky with the weather on our trip and it meant that Jimmy could actually get out of the buggy and walk. I haven’t as yet got him his first pair of shoes as my Mum has brought them and is bringing them down this week so we popped some old pram shoes on him and let him have a bit of freedom which he was thrilled with! His first outdoor walk at Thorndon Country Park – something to remember!
There are lots of other interesting things along the way too and we had fun playing in dens and on beams and stages in the forest!
When we had finished the trail and before we left for home we found a quiet bench and sat down to read some of the books. It was a lovely family day and I even managed to set up the camera for a family shot!
When all you pay for is the £2.20 parking and 50p for a map it’s not a bad day out. Take a picnic and make it even more affordable! In fact, I would say definitely take a picnic, the cafe didn’t look too hot and although they MUST have been selling food because I could see people eating it, there was nothing to show what or how much that I could see of. We had an ice cream at the end of our trip from the cafe and I’d say that’s probably about their limit… Yes, I said ice cream – for once it was that warm!! Once tip would be wear wellies, whatever the weather, we didn’t and came home VERY muddy!
I have not been paid in any way to write this post.
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