#CountryKids On the trail with the National Trust

My son and I decided today to try and do as many Easter trails at local National Trust properties as possible! We were going to be at Fell Foot for parkrun already so it seemed a great opportunity to tackle a few that were close by. It turned out that the Fell Foot one was a Spring trail and not an Easter one but it put us into quest mode:

The series of cryptic clues led us all over the park and some were quite tricky! There were a few other families also trying to find all the bunny rabbits that were hidden in all sorts of places. It took us about 40 minutes to find them all and claim his prize of a mini telescope.

Our plan was then to head over to Claife Station via the ferry to do their trail. Unfortunately when we got to the ferry it was temporarily closed... So we had to do a plan B and head to Wray Castle via Ambleside. It took ages but at least we spotted a couple of Herdwicks on the way:

Lots of other folks had had the same idea as well so we had to wait for a parking space before we could collect a pack for the Easter trail:

To help us out there were cunningly placed paw prints to show we were going in the right direction:

My son was keen to find the clues and find the ingredients for Mrs Tiggywinkle's pie:

He had to write down the ingredients that he found in each bucket:

It took us all over the site and clocked up nearly a kilometre of walking:

The final ingredient was tucked away to make it more interesting to find:

The lady checked the answers before giving my son his prize chocolate bunny:

After a whiz around a heaving castle (separate post to follow!) we headed down to the Claife Viewing Station:

This time we had to track down minibeasts and solve the clues:

It was a bit of adventure as we had never been to the site before and its a beautiful spot:

We had to keep our eyes peeled to spot the labels and the insects in various hiding spots

The majority of the clues were in the neighbouring nature reserve:

The insects had been secured well to survive the predicted high winds and rain:

This quest was the most peaceful and we were the only ones out there which was a real shame:

Just to add to the mix the insects weren't all in the order they were on the sheet:

Afterwards my son had fun trying out his mini telescope:

Each trail had its great points according to my son: Wray Castle was interesting, Fell Foot was the most exercise and Claife had the insects. I think they were all good value for £2. He wants to do more tomorrow..