On Tuesday afternoon we went to Box Hill with our friends from 3 Kids and a Gluestick. We arrived after them, and they had already finished their picnic, so we took our packed lunches with us and set off along the Natural Play Trail.
The children were very happy that there were lots of things to climb on – Rabbit in particular was in her element!
The children ate their lunch in the largest of several dens, and then explored some of the others.
We really enjoyed exploring the play trail, and could have spent even longer there if we had had time. Owl managed to catch a falling leaf (one of the 50 things) and Monkey spent a long time trying to do the same. Luckily he succeeded at last. Rabbit and Tiddler didn’t manage it this time, but they had fun trying!
We found out, from our friends, that you can eat the flesh of yew berries as long as you remove the black seed first (be very careful if you try this at home.) And Rabbit learned that it’s probably not a very good idea to go for a walk in the Autumn in your plimsolls!
The children had fun on the rope swings and it was particularly hard to get them to move on from this part of the trail…
…especially as there were more things to climb on too.
The children played trolls with their friends on the “trip-trap” bridges, while I took rather a lot of photos of fungi!
We even managed to collect a few brambles. There were not many left, but enough to take home and cook with some apples from the garden – the perfect pudding after a quick supper of boiled eggs and toast because we were so late home.
Box Hill is so near to us and I don’t know why we’ve never been there before. Monkey says it is his favourite National Trust place and keeps asking when we can go back, so I think we will be visiting again soon.
I love all the obstacles they set up for the children to climb. I can imagine my children enjoying playing. It does look a fun place to visit. #CountryKids
The natural play trail looks amazing! What a great place to spend the afternoon 🙂
I love that natural play trail, I think I’d like to build one like this at Coombe Mill one day. For now I’m going to pin it to may aspirations for Coombe Mill board. A wonderful post full of all that is great about Autumn.
I’m very impressed with the amount of work the NT have done there to make it so much fun to go climbing, they’ve put a huge range in haven’t they?! I did chuckle at the plimsoll picture!
Nipping over from Country Kids.
What a great advert for Autumn and the National trust. All that climbing and dens my boys would really like it there. Seems there was a good balance of things to inspire the children and adults a like.
That looks a brilliant place to visit. We keep discovering these places where we say ‘why haven’t we been before?’, too. Great to get outdoors and see the kids go wild!
What a great place for kids to explore. Hope the shoe found it’s owner!
I am loving these dens they look fantastic xx
Box Hill is wonderful, looks like you all had such a good time there. It’s amazing how many NT properties there are in Surrey, was amazed when I looked recently 🙂
My boys will surely love all those climbing and dens. Somehow I agree with Rabbit about that not so good idea of walking in Autumn with plimsolls!:-) #CountryKids
sometimes its what on our doorstep we forget to see, great fun day x
we have a play trail similar near us, looks like you had great fun
I love the natural play trails I’m off to check out our local national trust locations.
What a great park! So many neat places to climb and explore. I stopped over from Country Kids.
Thanks for all the comments, it really is a brilliant place to play. We love the National Trust 🙂