Strid Wood

Its August Bank Holiday, and as we're not insane enough to go away for the entirety of this mini holiday (18 million cars on the road at the same time in the great bank holiday getaway this year!) we were content enough to simply go out for the day on Sunday.


We headed for the Bolton Abbey estate - this was a favourite place to visit when I was growing up and I must have gone there umpteen times before, although the last visit was probably nearly 20 years ago. Having failed to do anything more than give their website a cursory glance and not bothered to refer to anything more than the rather sketchy map we got on entrance, we didn't really give much thought to what we were going to do, other than a rather vague idea of going for a walk.



So we set off for a walk round Strid Wood, the woodlands that surround the River Wharfe as it runs through the estate. The map had one half of the walk suitable for pushchairs and one half suitable for wheelchairs, so we figured we'd be ok to go around the whole circuit which was about 3 1/2 miles long. The only problems with this were that the "suitable for pushchairs" part of the walk wasn't really suitable at all - Doug had quite a job pushing the pram up some very steep, narrow, winding paths and Jacob found it quite hard going on foot.



Also, when we got to the Strid cafe halfway through the walk, it didn't really provide the sort of refreshments we were thinking of; the hot food Doug had been fantasizing about for most of the walk was only available at the starting point of the walk, back where we'd left the car. We made do with some cheese sandwiches and crisps which certainly gave the boys ample fuel to do the rest of the walk.



The second half of the walk was much better for pushchairs, running along the side of the river rather than at the top of the steep river bank, and Sam managed to walk quite a way while Jacob had a rest in the pram. Eventually we made it back to the car, Jacob almost tottering with fatigue - he'd walked the lion's share of a 3 1/2 mile walk - not bad for a three year old. He lasted just long enough to eat his ice cream and then fell asleep, not waking up again until 6.20am this morning.


Next time we go we'll probably plan a bit better and do a gentle walk down to the Abbey ruins, or just do half the walk round the wood. There's also other things to see on the estate - the village, Barden Tower, a kiddie-friendly farm that has a play barn as well tractor rides and a straw maze, the money tree and stepping stones across the river.

Today, we're all pretty tired (Doug and I went out for a meal last night, as well as having gone out on Saturday night to the pictures - we're just not used to this pace of living!) so we're pootling about the house doing very little. A perfect way to spend a bank holiday, although I will spare a thought for those poor souls driving back from their 3 day holiday and spending most of the afternoon in the inevitable traffic jams :-)