Wendover Woods

Wendover Woods

People have been recommended Wendover Woods to me for ages, I’ve seen Facebook status update’s from friends etc and kept thinking ‘I must explore!’  For one reason and another it just hadn’t happened.  Fate was about to step in.  I’d been catching up with Erica’s adventures on 92three30 recently and seen that she’d taken H to her local Forestry Commission for a Stick Man trail.  My ears pricked up, when I noticed a comment from Emma at Bubbablueandme mentioning that the event was also being held at Wendover Woods throughout January.  Right that’s it I thought, time to get the SatNav programmed, Monkey we are off to Wendover Woods!

So last Saturday, Monkey and I set off for the outskirts of Aylesbury, both in wellies, him in waterproof trousers, for our first trip to Wendover Woods, our first trip to a Forestry Commission site.  That fact surprises even me, considering our love of nature!  Oops, must rectify.  One thing to bear in mind – change for the car park – it is pay and display.  I ‘borrowed’ some change from Monkey’s piggy bank – £3.20 will get you 4 hours car parking.  It’s all very well laid out on arrival, and even I could park without any problems.

Exploring Wendover Woods

Monkey was eager to get started, I’d spotted signs for The Stick Man Trail so we picked up a free map leaflet for the Woods, and off we went.

Wendover Woods

Unfortunately for us, the Stick Man Trail had obviously been really popular already and there weren’t any activity leaflets left.  But we got on fine, there were lots of activity suggestion points along our route and Monkey loved spotting them, Mummy here’s another one!  Mummy what does the Stick Man say?

Wendover Woods

Wendover Woods

Wendover Woods

We had so much fun stacking sticks, making a stick man and looking at the trees along our Stick Man trail.  Talking about the woodlands, getting muddy, giggling along the way.

Wendover Woods Wendover Woods Wendover Woods

Wendover Woods Wendover Woods Wendover Woods Wendover Woods Wendover Woods

We played hide and seek with our Stick Man, and he’s going into Nursery School for Show and Tell apparently.

I loved watching Monkey run ahead, jumping in puddles, having fun, investigating dens.  He’s normally quite a cling-on, so it was refreshing seeing him be a little independent, confident enough to let go!

Jumping in muddy puddles ……

Having fun ……

We talked about different trees and different leaves, and studied the tree trunks with their rings – that fascinated him.  We jumped in lots of muddy puddles, yes he got me jumping too.  We kicked out feet through the leaves and squelched in the mud.

We had lunch at the cafe, Monkey’s lunchbox was less than £4.00 (I think £3.50 but don’t quote me on that) and I had a lovely sandwich and coffee.

We looked at the map and off we went again.  He was mesmerised when 2 horses rode out in front of us.  We followed them and tracked their horseshoe prints.  We have a couple of horseshoes hanging in the kitchen from my wedding, so he was excited to see the marks they left in the mud.

We went shadow chasing to end our time at Wendover Woods.  As well as more puddle jumping – obviously!

We got back to the car, after a lovely time in the sunshine, in the woods.  Mummy that was great fun.  Can we come again please!

What more can you ask for?  We’ll be back with our magnifying glass next time for some bug hunting!

 

36 thoughts on “Wendover Woods

  1. Oh that looks like a great place to explore – I love finding new places to go and love the amount of photos you took! x

  2. Lovely pictures and what a great day out! My 2 would love the muddy puddles and the stick man trail looks great. This would be right up Miss M’s street although like Monkey, Mister B is finally finding his independent feet and running ahead rather than clinging on. Love the fresh air for little ones to run around and feel free.

  3. I definitely want to do a stick man trail now – and I would have said we’re too far way, but Becky has just quite rightly pointed out that I should make our own 🙂

  4. I have spent hours playing hide and seek in Wendover woods with the children. It is a great forestry commision site and one we love to visit when we visit my Mum who lives close. It was lovely spotting the places I knew in your post and seeing the stick man adventure. It made me chuckle seeing you and Becky with two fabulous and matching posts as one and two linked up on Country Kids this week. Also great that you were inspired, as was I, reading Erica’s post last week, Country Kids sharing at it’s best!

    1. I know, great minds think alike, and I’m so glad that Erica’s post made me finally sort out a visit to Wendover Woods. Monkey hasn’t stopped talking about it all week, great place.

  5. The photo under the video of the sunlight streaming through the trees is magical! Looks like you had a wonderful time exploring!

    Nipping over from Country Kids

  6. I’m definitely inspired now at trying to set up some sort of Stick Man trail here in the US. They look like so much for kids and a great way for them to explore and have fun in the woods.

  7. That looks like a super place to explore and have fun! Think I might make a mental note to take the boys there! *runs off to find how far it is from us*

  8. Looks like you had a brilliant time! We went on our local Stick Man Trail just before Christmas, and the kids loved it. It just adds an extra purpose and dimension to the trip out – lots of fun 🙂

  9. Ooh thanks for the mention. Terribly, although I’ve been talking about it, we’ve not made it. Might try next Sunday, but otherwise we’ll have run out of days! Looks like it was a good day out.

  10. OOOH i live in Aylesbury and go there all the time next time your have to come over for a cuppa it look like you had a nice muddy but cold day #CountryKids

  11. This looks like so much fun, am going to keep watch for a Stick Man trail near us! #CountryKids

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