County Durham
Adventure forest, which includes heathland too
Lots of bike tracks
West off the A68 south of Tow Law
Fuel stops x 2 south of Tow Law- not between Corbridge and Tow law!
Accessibility: flattish walking. Get the kids to bring wellies!
We had intended to take the boy to High Force but, after he was sick on the road - and he is usually never carsick, we started looking out for something a bit closer to home - hence, Hamsterley Forest.
When I say it's "old fashioned," what I really mean is children having fun in water, on climbing frames, learning how to balance, on swinging chains, basically just mucking around with their parents (or grand parents). The climbing frames are all incredibly strong and chunky and huge. Little kids will enjoy visiting the enormous wooden Gruffalo in the woods and older kids will enjoy the bike rides and you can even hire bikes here too. And have picnics or go to the coffee shop.
Our nine year old is just a little too young for the mountain bike rides ( or maybe we're just a little too old - no, never say that!) but he did enjoy balancing on wobbly stones in the wide shallow river and trying to get as far across as he could before it became too deep - about a foot deep at the very most.
And of course he got his feet wet and of course I got my feet wet. And no, Himself did not get his feet wet, just looked on wryly waiting for his moment to make a comment. Ha!
Well, it was a fun afternoon. And Hamsterley truly is a lovely, verdantly green forest, with wide and sweeping conifers doing what conifers do best - drape themselves elegantly in their sticky-out ball dresses and also the marvellous beeches, which this area grows so well.
After we had got wet, we had our picnic and headed home, back up that rollercoaster of a road, the A68. Just watch out for the speedy racers who obviously love the switchback potential of this driver's road. There are lots of warnings about accidents, so go carefully, eh?
No comments:
Post a Comment