Alice Holt Forest – The Highway Rat Activity Trail

Alice Holt Forest

We have just visited this fantastic new trail in Alice Holt Forest, dedicated to Bobcat’s current favourite book: The Highway Rat. Alice Holt is about 30-40 minutes drive from South West London where we live. It has great walking trails for all ages and capabilities, including the new Highway Rat Activity Trail and our old favourite the Gruffalo Trail which has new features, so will be checking that ones out soon too. It has two fantastic playground, a Go Ape activity centre and Cycle Centre and a cafe. We are regulars – a day out in every few weeks, rain or shine. (Great muddy puddles in winter!)

The Highway Rat

Bobcat is a huge fan of the Julia Donaldson books, we have all of them and he knows them by heart. His current favourite is the Highway Rat and he loves imagining that he’s the Highway Rat which we of course encourage because imaginative role play is important for every children but it’s really something children with autism spectrum disorder struggle with. When we read the book (almost every evening these days…) he normally puts it on stage and his role is the Rat of course, I’m normally getting the role of the story teller (obviously, because I’m the one who can read) and her sister gets the role of the Duck. It’s about a rat robbing the other forest animals for their sweets and cakes – which they don’t have of course – and ends up learning his lesson.

So the visit to Alice Holt was a surprise for him and he absolutely loved it. Using daddy as his horse, stopping random visitors by shouting at them: “Stand and deliver!” and using a stick as his sword.

The activity trail

The new Highway Rat trail is taken over the Habitat trail which is a 1 km long family walk and even my 2 years old easily managed it. It has different play sculptures to stop by. We received a cute activity pack with a paper mask, stickers and games and we mainly had to spot the characters from the book. The numbered panels all had some extra information about forest animals to, so we talked about how ants and rabbits live in the nature.

We started off with some playground time and had cake in the cafe when finished. (We had to! I mean, the Highway Rat is all about chocolates and cakes!) I was pleasantly surprised by seeing all the biodegradable takeaway coffee cups and lids. Well done Alice Holt.

If you’re around, it well worth the visit, you just need to pay for the parking and an optional £3 for the kids’ activity pack.

One of my lovely blogger friends has also reviewed the this new trail near Exeter, close to Haldon Forest. So if you live around or planning to visit, have a read : The HighWay Rat Trail – Did it Stand and Deliver?

Check out another day out review of mine: Family Day Out Review Series: National Motor Museum Beaulieu