The Crocky Trail

Today, the Minx and I met up with our friends, Jon and Lou, to go to the Crocky Trail, which the Minx had mentioned to us a few weeks ago as something that would be fun to do with the kids. So, we did take some of our kids along, too. Six, in fact, ranging in age between six and eleven.

We were blessed with gorgeous sunny whether, so we started off our afternoon with a picnic, which the kids punctuated with dashes across to the slides. These were the first indication that Crocky Trail is quite surprising in its refreshing lack of *over* concern for health and safety. The slides are about thirty feet high with a vertical middle section. This generated plenty of screams from children who then rushed around to have another go.

In fact, the slides set the tone for all of the activities. All wonderfully homemade looking, from huge chunks of metal and thick black plastic, every one appeared a bit hazardous but turned out to be perfectly safe without diminishing the kids' excitement in any way. I could list them all but you can look at their website so I'll just mention 'The Titanic, which is pictured above*. This starts off pretty much horizontal and all the children scramble to the far end, which then begins to elevate. As the angle increases, the kids start to slide off until, once it reaches maximum elevation (around 30 degrees, I reckon), it bounces to shake loose any stragglers. Fantastic!

The kids all had a brilliant day and so, consequently, did we. And it's the first place I've taken the kids in ages where I didn't feel the owners were constantly trying to get inside my wallet. We paid a tenner a head to get in and that was it, apart from some (reasonably priced) ice creams at the end. The owners have made plenty of provision for visitors to take along and eat their own food.

It was a brilliant suggestion by the Minx that we go along and the Crocky Trail completely lived up to her description of it. It is the best place I've been with the kids for ages. If you live within a 100 miles of Chester, I highly recommend it.

*You can just see Mia and Abi at the front of the three girls who are sliding down. There were thirty or so kids on there at the start!