A day out in the area around Monmouth. We visit the animals at Raglan Farm Park; go canoeing on the Wye with Yofi Paddlesports and visit the Wye Valley Butterfly Zoo. Two months later we’re back to see if we can crack the Elton Maize Mazes.

157 – The Elton Maize Mazes

Monday 28 July. Sun and cloud. 22°C

Two months on from our first excursion (see below) and we’re back visiting the Forest of Dean and specifically the Elton Maize Mazes. I am VERY excited. We last came in 2020 in between lockdowns when B was a timid 5. I remember loving it but thinking she was too young and we must come back later. B and friend K are not 100% sure but humouring me. It’s a long drive from us (one of the reasons we haven’t tried earlier) but I’m hopeful it’s going to be worth it.

It SO is. B and K are won round by the opening instructions. ‘Watch out for the water booby traps’… B&K: “We don’t want to get wet”… Then the sun comes out and they change their mind.

We try the smallest maize first – the ‘piranha’ this year. It’s harder than I expect. There are question sheets and 5 question posts to find… we do but it takes a little going back and forth. We’re pretty hot by the time we get them and the girls know where they’re going next. “Let’s try that adventure one with the water”.

It’s really cool. There’s over 20 different activity ‘areas’ from simple things like exercise challenges to amazing tunnels and obstacles courses. They’re all made from basic equipment which doesn’t make them any less fun – I’d say more so. There’s a real ingenuity to them and love has clearly been poured into making them.

The water showers take a while to find. We find two which are motion sensitive and go on when the girls get close. They love this. They are there for hours. Then there are three linked to question boxes which go on when you get the wrong answer. Unsurprisingly they get a lot of wrong answers. For non sporty girls who hate sports day they threw themselves at the challenges too – I’m amazed at what they do. They have a thoroughly good time before finally announcing themselves hungry and wanting lunch. Turns out I’ve left half the pack lunch behind and am delighted to find that they serve great chips and chicken nuggets.

After lunch we head back to do the biggest maze – the Bird of Paradise. I’m not sure we found the best way to tackle it. B got hold of the map you have to help you out if stuck and planned a route. We agreed to separate at points – B & K going one way and me going another. We passed several families – the older the kids the more it seemed to work. You can play amazing hide and seek. We decided not to worry too much about answering the questions – and try to find different numbers instead. Next time I won’t let them get the map. I took it away from them in the end. I think they lost a bit of the wayfinding joy but for 10 year olds who are beginning to enjoy going off on their own it was really great. I was worried I’d lose them but it was really fun hearing voices and trying to work out where each other was.

Challenges 216-214

Friday 30 May.  Cloudy with sunny spells. 19°C – nb. there’s too much nature related to do in Wye Valley to limit the day to just one challenge – so we did three! B is going away with the school for three days the following week so we justified it by saying it could fill in for those.

216 – Stroking a baby donkey at Raglan Farm Park

We’ve been coming to Raglan Farm Park since B was five. A bit like London Zoo she’s getting a bit old for it now but it’s helpfully placed on the way to Monmouth so we come anyway to check in. Feeding the donkeys carrots doesn’t got old or boring with age. There was a shortage this time so we settled for picking large stems of grass from the animal free side of the meadow and delivering it across. The alpacas didn’t seem to see the point of eating from someone’s hand when they were in a meadow full of grass… the donkeys differed. They thought eating grass from a person infinitely preferable to putting their heads down!

It’s an amazing place for kids with huge amounts of soft play, bouncy castles, trampolines and zip wires. If you get there early the bouncy castles are empty. Little B found them alarming with too many kids on them and she found her love of them here. There’s also two different sizes of zip lines for different levels of adrenalin seeking! There’s also a great farm shop which makes me happy.

Best of all, for our nature challenge purposes, they have a regular supply of baby donkeys. The one this time, four weeks old and with a naming competition in place, was particularly cute. As opposed to the emu… who, denied carrots to snap, settled for staring everyone out.

215 – Canoeing on the Wye

On for lunch at Ye Olde Ferrie Inn at Symonds Yat (West) (a treat for the adults with amazing views and lovely food). There’s a hand pulled ‘ferrie’ here that goes across to the other side for walkers and cyclists. We’ve done that the last few times we’ve visited but this time I’ve finally persuaded B to try canoeing. Yofi Paddlesports is based by the Inn and is really easy to access. You can book online but we just went up in person. B was a bit wary but she’s doing canoeing on her residential trip with the school and was open to trying it beforehand to stop it feeling too scary.

Leon was really helpful. He gave us really clear guidance and instructions on routes and what to do in an emergency. We headed off up river, playing with paddles and generally failing to keep the boat going straight. B was nervous. I’m not sure why. She loves our paddleboard and is very confident on it, but rivers and canoes are apparently different. We put our paddles in to check depth and found the ground was just below the bottom of the canoe. That cheered her up but when we tried again a few minutes later to find it deeper than the paddle she panicked.

Helpfully my mum was following us along the bank, so we found a place to pull up and B departed canoe to walk instead and I continued solo up the river while they walked back. It was beautiful and I really enjoyed it. Looking back I think letting B out was the right decision. I want her to be confident on the water and reckon it’s better to know you can stop if you want to.

214 – Walking with butterflies

Five minutes drive or half an hour walk from Ye Olde Ferrie Inn is the Wye Valley Butterfly Zoo. Another regular haunt for us, we normally also do the wonderful Amazing Hedge Puzzle which is also there but alas it is not well at the moment and is being replanted. We also like the mini golf.

The butterfly zoo is a lovely example of it’s type. It’s big and warm and we all love walking around it and watching the butterflies flutter about you. They’re very calm and friendly and B always manages to get one to land on her finger. She adopts one quickly today and it stays put for the whole visit. In the end we gentle blow on it and it flutters off. We find a fallen leaf on the floor to make a 214 and a helpful butterfly absorbed in some banana to pose next to it. A fellow visitor points out what may or may not be butterfly eggs on a tall yucca type plant. We also find chrysalises bobbing gently in a glass case. To finish the visit off in style two black and red butterflies attached to each other (we presume they’re making more eggs) fall onto B’s hand. They don’t seem able to move easily so we find a plant to gently attach them to!

A note about car parks for anyone else visiting this lovely area of the world. Ye Olde Ferrie Inn has a tarmacked car park which is free for customers. Beyond it is an overflow field which you need to pay for (there’s a machine in the corner) and is run separately. Wye Valley Butterfly Farm has a car park which you need to pay for. There’s a pay machine in the corner by the toilets or you can pay online.