Dear Mummy, over the half term we were invited to attend BeWILDerwood adventure park, in Hoveton, Norfolk. It’s two miles from Wrexham on the Norfolk Broads and 8 miles north-east of Norwich. We’d heard great things about this outdoor adventure park. It’s a fantastic alternative to commercial theme parks by providing a whole days worth of play in the woods for families. The added bonus was a spooky lantern parade around the woods after dusk called The Glorious Glowing Lantern Parade during the Halloween half term.
The impressive entrance at BeWILDerwood
We travelled to Norfolk from Hampshire and stayed at the Travelodge Norwich Central and there are plenty of tourist spots nearby to make a weekend of it if you are travelling to BeWILDerwood from afar.
Boggle Village
As the lantern parade was due to start after dusk (around 6pm) we decided to get to the park for midday so that the I could enjoy roaming the woods and climbing without tiring myself out before the evening festivities. Before the sun set we explored BeWILDerwood it all its Autumnal glory. It was bewitching with golden fallen leaves and sunlight filtering through the branches.
Meeting the storyteller
BeWILDerwood is an outdoor adventure park based on the children’s books of local author Tom Blofeld, which are set in this whimsical woodland. The stories are brought to life with storytelling sessions, tree top playgrounds based on the homes from the books and boat rides through the beautiful countryside.
Climbing high in the trees
Entrance is based on a child’s height. Born to BeWILD (Under 92cm) are free, Almost WILD (92-105cm) £14.50, BeWILD Now (over 105cm) £16.50 and Used to BeWILD (65 years+) £9.50. You can book online for cheaper tickets too. It’s excellent value for money as face-painting, story telling, craft making and running wild in mazes, tree houses, slippery slope slides and wobbly wire zip lines are included in the price!
Having lots of fun – watch the video to see my mummy slide…
We started our adventure into the woods the same way as Tom Blofeld’s character Swampy, the Marsh Boggle, did with a trip down the river. The BeWILDerwood story was told by our boat driver who had a long grey beard and looked like he was from the stories as well. He took us down Dismal Dyke to the Scary Lake where we met Mildred the Crocklebog, who scared the life out of my mummy!
Playing around with my mummy in the Thornyclod web
We filmed a little video of our day at the BeWILDerwood to give you an idea of what to expect and share our experience with you all (listen out for my mummy’s screams).
The staff were friendly and loved talking about the books. We were captivated by the stories that inspired the creation of BeWILDerwood. It’s a real feast for the imagination and throughout the woods there were fairy doors, little houses and unusual signs and I was constantly looking for Twiggles and Boggles amongst the tree top houses and in the reeds.
The spooky trail at BeWILDerwood
We joined in the spooky themed quiz trail which encourage us to explore the whole site with puzzling riddles and pumpkin style stamps. After completing the trail we collected a BeWILDerwood badge in exchange for our quiz sheet which was a lovely memento to take home.
Getting lost in the Sky Maze
BeWILDerwood has so many wonderful treetop gangways, crazy mazes, obstacle courses and slides suitable for all ages. They even split the activities into separate areas for toddlers and older children so there’s no worry of older children pushing in. I loved climbing through trees connected by rickety bridges and exiting down steep slides. It was nice seeing family members getting involved too.
Lots of things to do during the day!
There were great information boards to plan our adventure and scheduled storytelling sessions took place three times a day on a stage in the heart of the woods. They had a great dressing up box and I was encouraged to come up on the stage and cast magical spells in the wand whirling class. With twinkly fairy lights, bell tents, colourful tree houses, fire pits and outdoor eating it felt like a festival. We were lucky with the weather but I’m not so sure what it would be like on a miserable day…
In Boggle Village
There were three cafes around the adventure park which are reasonably priced selling snacks, tea and coffee and hot food, but you can also bring in your own picnic. On the day we brought in our own food which is a refreshing change from other places we’ve visited.
Making lanterns
During lunch we decided to make our lantern ready for the parade. It was really nice to relax and craft, enjoying the surroundings and we did it on a picnic table outside the Big Tent as it was too busy inside. All the materials to make our lanterns were included in the price of the ticket and we got everything we could possibly need to make our glorious glowing light.
The Glorious Glowing Lantern Parade
Before the lantern parade there was a puppet performance from Snagglefang, the BeWILDerbat, with a poem and jokes which started the procession through the woods. Walking around the woods in the dark wasn’t frightening but enchanting, however it did get quite busy at choke points along the route. We loved Hazel The Wood Witch’s potions and her cackling.
Finding the characters from the book
It was lovely seeing the Thorneycold Spider, Mildred the Crocklebog, tiny Slitherigrubs in the reeds and Swampy from the books. The atmosphere of the lantern parade was amazing with spooky fog and music, the shadow puppets and light shows.
Look at the smile on my face!
Even if you are not local to BeWILDerwood we’d recommend taking a trip to Norfolk to visit, it really was a magical day! The books are also available to order online to make the experience of BeWILDerwood last longer. We can’t wait till the Pesky Bunnies arrive in 2018…
Love Bella x
Disclaimer: We were offered tickets to BeWILDerwood in return for an honest review. All thoughts and photos are our own.
What an amazing outdoor place to play – my lot would love that. It’s a good idea that they charge different amounts based on height because it’s harder to access some stuff the smaller you are. #countrykids
Oh wow I really need a break in Norfolk #countrykids
I have only ever heard good things about Bewilderwood, it sounds such a fun natural playground enhanced perfectly. What a treat to go up during their Halloween festivities, the lantern parade sounds wonderful after dark and wow to that Witch’s pot of colour full of mystery. Some ideas in here for me to take away.
Thank you for sharing with me on #CountryKids
This looks such a lovely place to explore and if we are ever around there in the UK we need to visit!! I love their Halloween festivities you’ve written about #countrykids
It looks like a great day out. I had it on my list for when we went to Norwich but we didn’t have time. #countrykids
Such a cool place, my kids still love it at 12 and 9! #countrykids
That really does look like an amazing place to visit. Have never been to Norfolk but looks like it would be well worth the trip! #countrykids
This surely does look fun. I also love the way you write your blog. What will you do when your daughter is older?
Thanks for your kind comment x Hopefully my mummy will let me write my blog all by myself when I’m older. That’s if I want to 😉 If not we’ll keep it as a record to look back on fondly x
This looks like an amazing place to visit, I especially like the tree snacks concept #famikyfun@_karendennis
What a magical place to visit. It’s so lovely that they appreciate the work of a local author- sometimes things can be too commercialised and I think they lose their magic. I would have loved to go here when I was younger.
This looks like so much fun! I would have loved this place when I was a kid. What a great way for the kids to have fun and make some memories.
We plan to visit here next year when we go and visit our friend who lives in Kings Lynne. It looks like such good fun and something that we would all enjoy x
Oh my goodness this looks like the most amazing place to spend some time.i would have just loved to go here when I was younger.
The outdoor adventure parks seems wonderful and so much fun. I am sure little man would love exploring it!
Wow! What a complete hoot….I love places like this,a lot of activities both for kids and adults to do. Thanks for sharing your adventures with us.
This looks like a brilliant day out for the family! Looks like they is loads to do
What a fab looking place to visit. My son loves being outdoors and I think he would love this place.
It is great that you were able to stay at the Travel Lodge nearby so that you could have fun at Bewilderwood! It looks like so much fun x
This looks like super cool hours of fun my son loves the outdoors so he would love here
This looks like a lovely place to visit with kids. Someday will definitely go with my kids>
Sounds like you had quite the fun and that looks like an awesome place to visit. The outdoor adventure park reminds me of the movie Bridge to Terabithia.
Wow this place looks wonderful!! My ideal day let alone the kids!!! #HoneybeeLinky
This looks like a magical place indeed with lots of fun to be had playing in the trees! I think my daughter will love this when she’s big enough to walk x
Oh wow, this look like a great place to visit with the kids, I bet it was great fun 🙂
This sounds like a great day out. I can imagine really getting into all the craft bits and my girls love to play on slides and things. #CountryKids
Loved the video, I wouldn’t mind having a go at climbing a spider web! 😀
It’s a bit too far for a day trip from Cardiff but it’s somewhere I have always fancied going. Looks great fun.
It was too far for us as well for a day trip that’s why we stayed at a Travelodge nearby so we had a whole weekend to explore 🙂 x well worth a visit x
This looks like such a fun day out for the whole family!
BeWILDerwood is on my list of places I’d like to visit with the girls at some point. It looks so magical and I love the look of the pumpkin parade. Sounds like you had a wonderful day out 🙂 #countrykids
That looks absolutely amazing! I’d have loved this as a child, definitely something to think about for when I get to look after my nieces and nephews!
What a lovely day! I love lantern parades so much. Tx
This has been on my list for a while, and we almost visited about a year ago but I decided a buggy was a bad idea. Its looks fantastic though so will be keeping it on our bucket list for once the baby has grown up a bit more x
#CountryKids !!
Looks like you had so much fun! I love the look of Sky Maze!
Looks like a really fun day. Loving the photos.
Oh my goodness what a fantastic place. It looks like a really rear day for the kids, I am genuinely gutted it’s so far from me as my two would have a great time. Thanks for sharing at #familyfun
Aww that looks so lovely, especially the lantern parade! Your photos are great.
What a fun Halloween activity. I would love to do that with my daughter next year.
What a fun place to explore! Love your photos. #countrykids
We was supposed to go here a few months back but both children came down with stomach flu, can you believe it! This is very high up on my list of things to do next year, and there’s no excuse for me as I’m not far away from there! Glad you had a lovely day #HoneybeeLinky
Wow, that looks like loads of fun! If I’m ever in the area with my kids we’ll have to go there, they’d love it!
Wow! This looks like such a fun place to visit… outdoors, up high, arts and crafts. Sounds amazing! And such cute pictures too, your little one looks so happy! Thank you for joining in with the HoneyBee Linky again! Hope to see you next time lovely! xxx
It looks brilliant Dawn! I can’t believe we didn’t go when we were up in Norfolk the other year. After watching your vlog, it’s going on my must-do list. Bella looks like she had a blast and that little boat trip is so cute. Thanks for joining us for the #dreamteam xx
Aww thanks Annette, great to see you today at #ytbritmums You should definitely visit BeWILDerwood x thanks for hosting #DreamTeam
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Wow this looks amazing, my son would love it!!