Easter Trail at Parndon Wood Nature Reserve

We are a big outdoor family, who love adventure. So, when our local nature reserve announced their yearly Easter trail, we were excited to book up tickets and attend. Parndon Wood Nature Reserve doe shave a lot going on generally, from themed trails throughout the year, to crafting days, to night walks. We’ve previously been to their Christmas Trail last year, and often visit on the weekends, but hadn’t been to their Easter Trail.

When we arrived the place was busy, despite the rain we’d been getting the last few days. At the entrance of the trail, there was a table set up full of prizes, as well as paper bingo sheets, so that children could spy the bingo cards and mark them off. We were also told there were four physical golden eggs hidden along the trail. If you find one, you can pick it up and bring it to the start to gain an extra prize. By the time we started, there were only three left, but this gave Kai and Amelia a good task to focus on.

Going along the trial, there were several scenes set up with various Easter themed stuffed animals, the second scene being the best of the best in mine (and Robin’s) opinion as a tea party had been set up. This tea party had all sorts of animals, drinking tea and eating cakes! Along the way, there were areas of specific themed stuffed animals in trees, with a tree full of chicks, another full of lambs, and some full of bunnies. These were all clearly placed specifically to decorate the area, and there were some trees that had baskets and flowers hanging from them, giving them a big spring vibe.

The bingo cards that we were looking for were placed on pilers around the trail, often near one of the decorated spots, so that we could look at the trees and take pictures at each area. This is very much what to expect at a Parndon Wood Nature Reserve themed trail, as we’ve been to a few! The newest bit of this trail, for our family, was actually the game section. In the story telling area of the Nature Reserve, there were several manned games set up, for children to enjoy. The first game had kids putting a carrot bean bag onto a launcher, then launching it into a rabbit hole that Dinged each time you made it! The next was a sort of feeling game, where you could place two hands into a box, and needed to feel specific Easter related toys, as said by the host, and pull them out fastest. A third, and probably my favorite to watch, had a bunch of eggs falling from a frame, where a child needed to catch the egg with a net.

These little games kept both Robin and Amelia very entertained, before we continued our trail and saw more of the different displays. In the end, we didn’t find a golden egg, but we did have a fantastic time on the trail. Each of the children got a chocolate egg for their completed bingo card, and Robin got a pack of mini-eggs for having her face painted up like a bunny! We then went into the cafe to do some craft painting.

Kai was pretty done with the day at this point, and being a teenager, we expected that. Amelia and Robin however wanted to paint some of the pottery crafts that were within the cafe, set up by Twinkle and Snug, so they picked out an egg and a bunny. We have the crafts from the same project from Christmas, so it was excited to add to our collection. Amelia painted a beautiful sunset egg and Robin painted a whimsical bunny with lots of color! We then headed home for the evening – this was a good half day event, and we totally could have brought a little packed lunch if we wanted too.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!