Fun in the woods with Wild Wanderers

My son recently celebrated his 10th birthday with a party run by Phillipa Chinn of Wild Wanderers. She runs this Environmental Education, Forest Schooling and holiday activities business in the woods at Billingsmoor Farm, Bickleigh in the Exe Valley.

The kids loved it! She taught them how to make badges out of wood, took them on woodland hide and seek games. They learned about King Alfred's Cake and how it is dried and used to light fires by survival experts like Bear Grylls and Ray Mears. She taught them how to respect the woods but also how to forage for useful things and to light five minute fires.

On one of their expeditions around the woods they were luck to spot some Roe Deer and hunt for bog living bugs and creepy crawlies.

The day was topped off with some lovely birthday cake, hot chocolate and they each made sticks to cook their marshmallows over the fire pit.







The day was very professionally run with due consideration to health and safety, respect of fires, careful use of knives and axes. The key message being "Safe Respectful Fun".

By the end of the day that were tired, filthy and had big smiles on their faces. We will definitely be calling on Phillipa and Wild Wanderers again!

Profile: Adrian Gray runs his company Viewshed Ltd from his home in Silverton, Devon. He's a trainer, software and web developer specializing in Ordnance Survey maps, Pitney Bowes MapInfo and Open Source development for the web, desktop and mobile platforms. He can be contacted at www.viewshed.co.uk