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Gruffalo’s Child Trail and musical magic at Wendover Woods

After our disappointment at not seeing a Gruffalo at the end of the Gruffalo Trail in Salcey Forest earlier in the year, I really wanted to try another forest and see one.  So when I saw that the Gruffalo’s Child trail was the next one starting this October at Wendover Woods in Buckinghamshire, I put a date in the diary to take N.

Wendover Woods are just over an hour from us, but worth making the slightly longer journey (despite the mad satnav directions) going there over Salcey which is a bit closer.  Wendover’s obviously very popular with cycling clubs, families, dog walkers and just people wanting a nice walk out.  We arrived fairly early, but the main car park was already pretty busy, and the cafe was doing good trade.

Because the Salcey Forest Gruffalo trail pack was a rip off – £2 for a leaflet – we didn’t bother buying an activity pack, although they did look better value.  If N was keener on actually doing the activities then I would have paid out the couple of pounds.  They were also selling Gruffalo animal soft toys which I was surprised they didn’t do from early on at Salcey when we went before.

It wasn’t a long walk to the start of the trail and N was really excited to begin.  He did make me laugh asking ‘are there people in there already?’.  It was like he didn’t want us to be the only people in there.

gruffalo's child trail

N’s now more excited about finding things and looking out for items on trails.  He’s still not that interested in talking through or doing the activities, although I did get him to draw with twigs in the mud, and we did talk through some of the nature and answers to the board questions.  Like any child, he loves getting answers right, so I think he is becoming more confident about answering and thinking about questions being asked.

gruffalo's child trail board

We loved the den building area along the trail.  N was quite keen on finding new long sticks and adding them to the dens that were already built.  He even got creative in telling me the tree stump was a train.

preparing the tree trunk in the forest

As well as the boards, we were also on the look out for the hanging animal banners which had letters on, to solve the anagram at the end.  We forgot to note them down, so have no idea what word it was, but it was a great way to be able to get N to think about some of the letters he’s learnt at nursery or at home.  I was surprise at how many he recognised given nursery only work on 1 letter a week, and most of the time he never speaks the sounds of letters when recognising them.  It’s usually just a shout ‘that’s in my name’ or ‘m for mummy, that’s in your name mummy’.

gruffalo's child trail 1

After trying to grow like a tree, we headed on through the trail.

pretending to be a tree growing

The trail’s about 1.5 miles long although it doesn’t feel that long with all the stops and starts of the activities. We reached the end and found the wonderful log carvings – a bear, owl and baby bear.  N was intrigued by these, more so than he was interested in the Gruffalo carving, despite having looked forward to seeing it for ages.

animal log carving

Of course N decided that he didn’t want to go anywhere near the Gruffalo, let alone have his photo taken next to it.  He did offer to hit it with the stick he’d been wandering round with but no way was he getting up that close.  This was as close as he’d get for a photo!

scared of the gruffalo

N was quite happy with his stick though.  He enjoyed trying to write and draw with it, he even wanted to bring it home with him.

drawing pictures with sticks

Then it was back to the main area, which by that stage was packed for a bite of lunch (wow, the queue was huge at 12 on the dot), and over to the playground.  This playground catered for more age groups than Salcey Forest.  There, everything was high ropes/nets off the ground, while at Wendover Woods, there’s lots of obstacle courses, swings of varying types, plus small and large equipemtn.

tyre obstacle course

While N loved the slide and swings, as per usual, we were excited to see the musical instruments set up.  There were a couple of xylophones and these funny musical ‘stepping stones’.  All you needed to play was yourself or some sticks.

jumping on the musical steps

N spent some time in that area, with lots of laughing and copying another young child playing as well.  I loved the xylophone idea – it would be great to have in your own garden, although this one wasn’t really capable of playing specific correct tunes.

outside xylophone

That didn’t seem to bother N.  He was bashing away, and singing twinkle twinkle little star, so he was definitely hearing one thing or filling in the gaps to make the music he wanted to.

We had a lovely few hours there, and I’m sure we’ll be back for more events, or when N’s older, the Go Ape.

Have you been to any of the new trails?

Bubbablue and me music linky

   

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12 Comments

  1. I’ve heard such good things about these trails, our nearest one is quite a way away but I think that we definitely need to make the effort to visit one. It looks like you had a great time!

  2. I’m desperate to go non a trail but there doesn’t seem to be many near us. It certainly looks like this one was better than the last? I can’t even begin to tell you how many sticks we’ve brought home over the years.
    Nipping over from Country Kids.

    1. That’s a shame. Our nearest are over 30 minutes away, but then once I start looking I realise there are quite a few around 1.5 hours away. The joy of being in the middle of the country!

      Yes, boys and sticks. And woe betide throwing them out.

  3. That looks like a brilliant trail. We did the Gruffalo Trail and my youngest wasn’t keen on the Gruffalo at the end either 😀 Love the bear carvings too.

    1. It was definitely better than the last. They’re so funny aren’t they. N was so looking forward to seeing it, after not having one last time (because we went earlier than they were launched), then wasn’t keen.

  4. I love this trail, the whole Gruffalo and Gruffalo’s child initiative is brilliant and Wendover woods is such a great place for it. Looks like you all had a wonderful time. Thank you for sharing on Country Kids

    1. It is lovely. I’m hoping they continue to do some more in future, although I suppose it’s because it’s the anniversary year this time, that it’s on. Thanks for stopping by

  5. My kids are too old for the Gruffalo trail now (although they’d still probably do it!). We love Wendover Woods though, particularly the cafe at the end of a walk. #countrykids

    1. I couldn’t believe how busy it was given the weather was just about dry but not massively warm or nice day. Really nice compared with Salcey though

  6. This looks great and I love the instruments in the play park. Love the photo of N drawing with his stick. I’m really sorry that we missed all the Gruffalo trails appearing, my boys would have absolutely loved them when they were younger x #CountryKids

    1. They’re a great idea at bringing books to life. We missed the Stick Man one last autumn/winter, and I wanted to get to the Room on the Broom one at the Forest of Dean, but didn’t end up going that far back in August. Maybe that’ll get rolled out next.

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