Our top-five forest adventures to finish the summer

Our top-five forest adventures to finish the summer

It’s been a long, warm summer – with the odd downpour – but we’ve got plenty of fun ideas to round-out the season.

For those of you who are watching your wallets, we’ve got some fantastic forest adventures either at Broadfields – home of the Forest Centre – or elsewhere in the wonderful Community Forest.

1. Join a Rabble

Although not your typical forest experience, our partners Forestry England are hosting a free Rabble on Thursday 29 August.

This event is designed for the whole family to enjoy fun fitness activities, so be sure to get along to put your loved ones through their paces and get active at the end of the summer.

2. Den building

That’s more like it, we hear you say! A staple pastime of any visit to woodland, and now’s a great time to find some of the best big logs, especially following the high winds earlier in the summer.

There aren’t many fallen trees, but there’s plenty of fun stuff on the forest floor to get hands-on with. May require a strong adult for a couple of the support beams to get the structure started...

(You've been sure to tag us in loads of pictures on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook this summer with your amazing den building!)

3. See the changing of the seasons

It’s harvest time, and across the Community Forest our farming friends are reaping their crops, with a lot of hay and grass being brought in as well as cereal crops being cut down.

See if you can work out which different produce those farmers are bringing in, and enjoy the awesome smells and colours that this time of year brings to the forest.

4. Discovering animals

Many of our northern friends will begin their long migrations south over the coming weeks, so whether it’s a trip to a wetland to see the waders on their way to Africa or a visit to Broadfields to watch the geese and starlings gathering overhead, there’s plenty for the amateur twitcher or experienced birder alike.

The free BioBlitz at Davy Down on Sunday 25 August is the first of its kind at the venue - help us by being a nature pioneer!

And don’t forget to peek under logs and in crevasses too – there are plenty of bugs, beetles and other invertebrates that make their homes in on the forest floor. (Just remember to put things back where you found them!)

5. Get cycling at Broadfields and beyond

Our partners at the Havering Bikewise Hub have been running free sessions all summer, and this includes bike maintenance at the Thames Chase Forest Centre on 31 August. Come along to make sure you have all the skills and pick up some hints and tips about how to look after your bike.

If you’ve not got one of your own but want to get back in the saddle, then do make the most of our very reasonably-priced cycle hire offer here, too – open daily from 10:30-15:30 until 3 September, and then on weekends until the end of September.


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