Tuesday 15 April 2014

#CountryKids On a Hunt for the Gruffalo at Grizedale

Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall


Having thoroughly enjoyed the Stick Man trail during the winter we were keen to try out the new Gruffalo trail. For a change we were at Grizedale forest as we were going to be trying out Go Ape Junior later in the day. We were joined by a friend and her 3 year old to test it out. 

We were given the trail leaflet by a friend who had been 2 days before which saved us £2. She had also told us where the trail started so we just headed up the blue trail where we found the start of the information boards. 

welcome to the deep dark wood

The first challenge board asked the children to move like the various animals in the story. My daughter duly posed for me stomping like the Gruffalo:

stomp like a Gruffalo

To encourage little legs and keep us on track there were little signs along the way:

keep going sign

 
For the next board it was using as many of the senses as possible. This is my daughter listening to the bird song:

listening

Further along it was time for Hide and Seek - turns out wearing red jumpers made this quite hard! The forest will be better for hiding in as more leaves come out though:

Gruffalo Hide and Seek

My daughter then helped our young friend with the next challenge of thinking about where the characters live in the forest:

where do the animals live

All too quickly the trail ended with a You did it sign and a chance to do some woodland art:

at the end of the Gruffalo Trail

Someone previously to us had created this lovely owl picture out of twigs and bark:

Owl created out of natural items

We made the most of some tree trunks acting as seats to sit and enjoy a picnic whilst enjoying the view on a beautiful day:

view at Grizedale

Then the children decided that it was time to build a log pile house for the snake, all three of them picked up sticks based upon their size:



In no time at all they had finished their construction:

building a log pile house

log pile house for a snake

The walk is not a very long one and there aren't as many activities as for Stick Man. The Forestry Commission have received plenty of feedback after the first few days and are going to add more to the trails. They were already in the process of making sculptures for a few of the forests in time for the Gruffalo birthday party on 7th June. One of these is our more usual forest of Whinlatter so I will definitely go and see it! I will be back to Grizedale again though as its a beautiful spot.

21 comments:

  1. Great photos looks like you had fun! Love that the sun has come out for the Gruffalo! x

    ReplyDelete
  2. it wasn't such a deep DARK wood maybe that;s why he wasn't there!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I tried to say that on your blog! We must be made of hardier stuff in Cumbria (says she who was born in Nottingham!). My daughter loved it

    ReplyDelete
  4. We were at Westonbirt this week and they have a Gruffalo trail too. We didn't do it, but we did pass a few groups who did. They seemed to be enjoying it. Same signs, by the looks of it. Lovely idea and I can imagine it keeps even the youngest child eager to walk. #CountryKids

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ruth's all sorts19 April 2014 at 08:20

    Ah we've just done the Gruffalo trail at Whinlatter! I've blogged and linked it for this week's country kids too :) It was a lot of fun for our little ones too. In fact the whole lakes holiday has been fab, as usual :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. They are fun but bits being added to make them better

    ReplyDelete
  7. Glad you have enjoyed it the weather has helped!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Grizedale looks lovely. We have Alice Holt near us where there is also a Gruffalo trail but I think my two might be a bit young for it at 4 and 1! #countrykids

    ReplyDelete
  9. Coombe Mill (Fiona)19 April 2014 at 11:36

    What a beautiful setting for a fun trail, it looks like the children had a great time and enjoyed building the log pile house! It's good to hear that the Forestry Commission are listening and acting on the feedback too. Thanks for linking up and sharing your outdoor fun with Country Kids.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Interested to read your post after I saw some really negagive posts on Facebook. We loved the Stickman Trail and Monkey adores the Gruffalo so we'll definitely be visiting our nearest Forestry Commission site once the wood carving is in place #CountryKids

    ReplyDelete
  11. That looks amazing, absolutely something i'd never ever do because i'm a lame scaredy cat but my eldest would love it!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thank you for sharing. We've been planning to do the trail too, near Farnham. Interesting to hear the Forestry Commission are taking on the feedback. Hopefully, they'll make them longer #countrykids

    ReplyDelete
  13. well the 4 year old would be OK!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I love Go Ape. Such a good idea they've introduced courses for the younger ones. Looks like you had a great day : )

    ReplyDelete
  15. I had heard bad things before I went but treated it as an extra fun way to walk and the kids seemed happy enough!

    ReplyDelete
  16. My eldest is dying to do this! We're at Whinlatter this week so maybe I wil give Go Ape a ring
    x x

    ReplyDelete
  17. yes as younger kids want to have the fun too!

    ReplyDelete
  18. they only have full one there http://beckywilloughby.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/countrykids-go-ape-at-whinlatter.html

    ReplyDelete

I love it when people leave a message