Superworm Trail

After the very successful Gruffalo and Gruffalo’s Child trails, the latest forest walk from the Forestry Commission is the Superworm Trail. This wasn’t on at Westonbirt Arboretum (which would have been our first choice), so we went to Beechenhurst Lodge in the Forest of Dean.

It is on days like these that I am reminded of how lucky we are living where we do. The Forest of Dean is so close, but visiting here feels like we have escaped into another world.

The Superworm trail follows the same format as the previous trails – along the trail there are ten stations with things to do or look out for, linked into the story of Superworm. If you don’t know the story, Superworm is a superhero who is captured by the evil Wizard Lizard and his crow and forced to work for him, until all the creepy crawlies he has previously helped come and rescue him.

You can also purchase an activity pack with additional things to do on the trail but it also contained a miniature Superworm book with stickers. Both of the girls really enjoyed looking out for each station along the route and having a go at some of the activities. Even Daddy enjoyed getting involved by “fishing” for dead leaves!

Some of the Superworm trail passes the Sculpture Trail – a 4 and a half mile trail of sculptures inspired by the Forest of Dean (the trees, wildlife and industrial past) and mostly made up of natural material from the forest. The giant chair-like structure called “Place” caught Freyja’s eye as we walked up the path towards it and from here there is an amazing view of the Cannop Valley.

When we visited Beechenhurst for the Superworm trail, it was the first weekend that the trail had opened, and around the visitor centre it was very busy (there were also various activities on here including worm charming!) but the trail itself was fairly quiet and at times it felt like we had all of this beautiful place to ourselves.

After our long walk we treated ourselves to a (very generous) slice of cake from the Gaveller’s Café and then the girls had fun in the adventure playground. What is really lovely about the playground is it split into two parts, one for the younger children which was suitable for the girls, and a section for the older children too. When they are older (and braver) there is a climbing tower with various routes up, catering for all abilities and a couple of vertical abseils down! But for now, we stuck to the playground.

As you can imagine, we had two very tired girls that evening!