My 10 year old niece and I took part in WWF’s first Great Wild Walks at Alice Holt Forest yesterday. The atmosphere was filled with excitement as families, individuals and dog owners all came together to get ready to start the walk. After a cloudy and cool start, the clouds soon dispersed and we began our walk with blue skies and sunshine.
On Arrival
At the entrance to the forest is a cafe, toilets and play area. A little way away from there WWF had set up their start/finish line alongside several tents including volunteers, sign-up, t-shirt collection, merchandise and water bottle re-fill. Here you could also get your dog a drink. You could also take a selfie or write your message on the giant WWF sign.
Each child was given a lanyard with their parent or guardians telephone number on it in case they got lost. There were 2 St John Ambulance first aiders on hand riding through the forest to wherever they were needed, as well as other first aiders at the WWF start/finish line.
The Start
Everyone started the walk together, but soon the more experienced and faster walkers moved off and the rest of us spread out. The footpaths were well established and wide. They winded their way through the forest taking us through both deciduous and pine tree lines. The forest floor was covered in ferns and moss. At moments I could just imagine some giant dinosaur slowly plodding through munching on a leaf here and there. The route that we were following was clearly signposted and had volunteers and event marshalls evenly dotted throughout ready to help and cheer you on.
Family Friendly
I would recommend the 5 mile route for young families and all terrain wheelchair users. On this route all of the footpaths are well maintained, wide and well defined. There are play areas built into the forest alongside the footpaths which are useful for quick play breaks if little feet start to get bored of following the footpath. There are also picnic benches dotted through out the woods. For more adventurous families who are used to lesser defined footpaths the 10 mile would be fine as there is only a very small section of the walk like this.
On the 10 mile route, a section goes off the well established paths and was very boggy, walkers were being advised to go round and step over fallen branches on one part. Other non established paths were uneven underfoot having once been boggy and dried out. We did see one family with an all terrain pushchair get up there, but it was a big family with plenty of adults able to help lift and carry the pushchair over any particularly tricky spots.
FYI Wheelchair users
There is only one section that is coarse gravel and it’s uphill on the last part of the walk towards the finish line. You would have to take this route whether or not you decided to do the longer route. I would advise wheels may get stuck or struggle to turn on this part and additional support to get up would be required. So you may need some help to get up this part. There are some inclines which would be made easier for wheelchair users if they had a motor, self propelling would be more challenging and you may need the help of a friend/family member or the volunteers to get up some of these.
Water & Rest Breaks
If you intended on doing the 5 mile walk be advised there is no where to top up your water bottle or go to the toilet during the walk. This is available at the start/finish line.
If you intended on doing the longer route, there are still no toilets available, but there is a water station that the walk loops back onto, so you have 2 opportunities to top up those water bottles.
Is it timed?
This is not a timed event and you do not need to specify before you start the walk which distance you are doing. It was very relaxed and you could just see how the day took you and how you felt.
We did it!
We managed to do the 10 mile walk in 3 hours 40 minute, being rewarded with a beautiful wooden medal or keyring at the end.
How much have we raised?
So far we have raised £330 for WWF. Jess and I would like to say a really big thank you to all of those who have helped us hit our target as well as to my husband for driving us.
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