Going on a bear hunt.

We arrive at the park and pile out of the car, five explorers ready for an adventure. "Mummy, please can we go through that gap in the trees- it looks like a path." "Wow! It looks like we're going on a bear hunt!" I suggest. Everyone gets into the idea, Son1 looking for tracking signs, all of us listening and looking, treking onward, its a peaceful woodland walk for a couple of minutes then the path tapers off where we enter a ginnel-type passage between two fences. The path narrows and the plants and weeds start to appear to get bigger, though there is a faint trace of a footpath underfoot.

We clamber through the triffids, avoiding nettles and bramble trailers, watch we don't bang our heads on tree branches across the path, each corner leading us futher into the wilderness. Daughter begins to say she doesn't like it very much a little anxiously, and the little one begins to get tired, so I pop him up on my shoulders; I decide this isn't the time to remind them of the bear hunt which has been forgotten by now.

Finally, after about 15 minutes we get to the last bend, the undergrowth peters out and ....... its a dead end!! A locked gate into the school over the fence. Oh. So back through the brambles, nettles, undergrowth, ducking carefully under the tree branches so as not to unseat my passenger, trudge through the triffids and back into the sunshine of the car park.

Phew!! I'm not going on a bear hunt again!!!