It's all about stories!: A Golden Wedding Story

My parents are celebrating their Golden Wedding anniversary. They are planning a day out for the family. Their choice of activity - a day at Bewilderwood, an natural adventure park in the woods near here. So off we go - two parents, two sisters, one husband, and four grand children. It's a really hot day in July, but Bewilderwood is in the woods, all shaded, so it's perfect.

Bewilderwood was created up by the owner Tom Blofeld, and the park is based on the characters from his books. Bewilderwood is home to Swampy, a Boggle who lives with his mum in a boggle hut and goes fishing. When he goes fishing he has to watch out for Mildred the Crocklebog who lives in the swamp. She's friendly but looks scary, and will spray out water at passer's by.

When you arrive at the park you get on a boat, ride across the scary lake, watching out for Mildred the Crocklebog, and get out in the woods. There are treehouses to climb, bridges, zip wires, mazes, tunnels, slides, dens to build, stories to listen to and much more. The children, and the grown ups, spend all day climbing, sliding and whizzing down zip wires. We stop for a picnic and listen to a Bewilderwood story while we eat. Then there's more - the Sky Maze is new, a 3-dimensional maze, with only one way to the top. It takes the boys about 5 minutes to find the way, and the rest of us about an hour! We have a brilliant day, go home, change, and have a family meal out. An alternative wedding anniversary, but a great one.

Mildred...

Swampy...

Grandparents are welcome to go on the zip wires (or any other things they fancy)...

Treehouses, rope bridges, wobbly bridges, so many bridges...

Enormous, fast, very high, very slippery slides...

Tom Blofeld has written some story books based on Bewilderwood, beautifully illustrated by Steve Pearce. A Boggle at Bewilderwood, The Bewilderbats, A Bewildermuddle, and The Ballad of Bewilderwood, a rhyming story...

We really enjoyed our trip to Bewilderwood. I'm writing this post purely because of that, because I love the illustrations in the books and because it really is a place for the whole family where imaginations can run wild and age doesn't matter.