I don’t write nearly as much ‘review’ type posts as I probably should. “Call yourself a blogger?!” I hear my internal voice call. “Well, yes, actually” I reply in my most condescending tone before my wife asks “Who are you talking to?”….

Moving swiftly on… This weekend we were craving a bit of outdoor fun. Ignoring the usual ‘it’s grim up North’ weather forecast we decided to try the Zog trail at Hamsterley Forest. We’ve been here both before and after child and it’s a lovely place. But I’ve never taken the time to write about it. Consider this now remedied:

Hamsterley Forest is run by Forestry England and is located to the east of the North Pennines near Bishop Auckland in the North East of England. They cater for all sorts of outdoor pursuits and have trails for walkers, cyclists and even horses! They are a number of small play areas and also a café beside the main car park.

The Zog Activity trail is a themed walk around the easier terrain of the forest with various markers and panels to find as well as activities to do. The Zog trail follows on for the success of other Julia Donaldson themed trails and as we’re a fan of the books it was a perfect way of having a family day out.

Parking

Hamsterley Forest has recently introduced a new ticketless parking system using automatic number recognition. This has stopped the tried and tested technique of good natured visitors passing tickets between one and other on entry and exit if they had any prepaid time spare. We’ve been both the recipient and the donor of such tickets in the past but I can understand why they’ve introduced the new system. Places like this rely on money coming in. The very reasonably priced £6 per day charge is something I don’t think you can really argue with. As it was a Bank Holiday weekend the price did increase to £10 for the day. But when you think that’s what you’re paying for a good few hours experience I think it still represents good value.

The car park is a decent size and despite arriving at near peak lunchtime we still managed to find a spot. Toilet facilities are on hand and are kept clean and tidy.

Time for coffee!

Oh how I love a café. It was lunchtime and I was craving a coffee we decided to grab something before hitting the trail. The café has approximately nine tables indoors and plenty of outdoor seating. Amazingly given the time of day and the, shall we say, inclement conditions we found a table inside and proceeded to devour the menu. Our Daughter, iBear, decided upon a jacket potato with cheese. My wife and I opted for a hot pork roll with apple sauce and gravy. I very nearly went for the bacon sandwich but held firm.

The café staff behind the counter all looked fairly busy but were very polite in taking our order. (full marks for convincing me to get some roast potatoes as a side order by the way). Our food and drink came to our table very promptly and the staff did a great job of keeping the spare tables clean. Suitably fed and watered (coffeered?) we purchased a trail activity pack from the counter and set off.

And we zigzagged through the blue

The trail starts immediately after you cross a bridge that takes you to the edge of the forest. The path winds along the riverside and is very easily accessible for all levels of walkers. Within this first section of the trail there are plenty of opportunities to explore your surroundings. The river is very shallow and we saw plenty of children paddling and playing. There’s also a couple of woodland assault courses dotted around which begged to be tried.

The trail then comes out of the forest and continues along the river. It was this part where we got the most enjoyment out of the day. They are loads of little pathways leading down to and along the river. Perfect exploring territory! iBear was in her element finding “mini beaches” and new rocks and banks to clamber on.

Decision time

The trail headed away from the river at this point and we were tempted to cross a bridge and continue our own forest adventure. We decided though to finish the trail. We made a note to come back again another day soon for the forest walk.

Moving away from the river and crossing a small road we started making our way up a path leading into the forest. It wasn’t too steep and takes you to the final stretch back towards the café and visitor centre. At this point it feels like the end of the trail but iBear was still happy racing ahead with her stick looking for the panels and dragon signs.

All in all we must have spent almost two hours doing the zog trail and that was without stopping for a picnic. We could have spent more time exploring as we walked along but iBear wanted to have a play in the play park before we left.

Anyone for tennis?

The main play area is situated right next to the café and car park and is a really good size. There’s climbing, slides, swings and plenty of logs to balance on. Amazingly there were also two table tennis tables so my wife and I had a great time whilst keeping an eye on our Daughter who’d by now had already made a friend.

Before we left we had time for another visit to the café to have a little sweet treat before heading home tired, but happy.

One Dads View

All in all we’d spent five hours at Hamsterley forest but only really scratched the surface. There are loads of things we’d like to do upon our return – namely bringing the bikes and exploring the specialist trails. Doing one of the longer nature walks, with a picnic. And finally giving the Gruffalo orienteering a try when it reopens.

Getting outdoors is something we love doing as a family and for any other likeminded families I can’t recommend a trip to Hamsterley Forest high enough.