30/10/2015

A day out! Stockeld Park, Halloween 2015

It is currently half term & as I often miss out on doing stuff due to my illness, I decided that I wanted to join in the fun this time. I knew I would suffer badly for it & that I would have a good few days (at the very least) of severe Post Exertion Malaise (PEM). However sometimes, as I've said before, it is worth actually living a bit sometimes despite knowing the consequences will be dire afterwards.

So we decided to have a day out. We settled on a place called Stockeld Park which is about 20 minutes from where we live. It is a truly magical place set in an Enchanted Forest. With this week being school holidays & it being the end of October, they had special Halloween themed stuff going on. I have never really been a fan of Halloween before but this year I seem to have got into it a bit more. Sort of.

We were due to leave around 11am & the weather was not on our side. Heavy rain. Not the ideal weather for walking (or in my case wheeling) round a forest! We set off anyway hoping that by some miracle it would stop when we got there. No such luck!


There are various ticket prices at Stockeld depending on the time of year & the amount of activities you want to do. We had decided we just wanted to go round the forest & go ice skating but the ice rink was closed due to the rain when we arrived! There is also the option to go on the Nordic ski trail & to go in the illuminated maze.  I had found out that carer's entry was free with proof of disability so it didn't cost us that much at all.

We had booked my daughter in for some Witch & Wizard training  (how exciting!) so we pretty much went straight there, getting soaked in the process. Good old British weather!


We were able to sit & watch the training in action & my daughter loved it.




It gave my jeans a chance to dry off too! Amazingly when it had finished the rain had stopped. A Halloween miracle...

I was a bit worried about how the wheelchair would fare on the rough ground but it was pretty much ok. There was a Witch trail around the forest & there were various code words hidden to complete a puzzle as well as witches to find.


My little girl absolutely loved it! She couldn't wait to find each one but there is also so much to see around the forest & lots of interactive stuff too. 

I particularly liked these huge sparkly balls!


I got a bit snap happy with my camera (just for a change) & it really did feel very magical.




When we were near the end, she found the final witch at Grandma's cottage from Little Red Riding Hood.


We were also joined by a rather large wizard & a zombie who scared the living daylights out of me. And because I said out loud he was scaring me, he did it all the more... naughty zombie!


We headed out & went to the cafe for a drink & a snack. There was a catwalk happening for any kids who were dressed up who wanted to join in which was really cute to watch. My daughter lost her hat halfway down the runway when it was her turn, so she had a witch running after her to give it back!!

We decided to leave after that as the ice rink was still closed, but we overheard someone say it would be open shortly. Luckily it did reopen & we couldn't not do it could we? I had already enquired about whether I could go on in the wheelchair & the answer was yes! So it had to be done.


What a fab experience! One of the staff pushed me around the rink & I loved it. My daughter & her daddy looked as funny as each other trying to skate but they soon got the hang of it. It had a brilliant atmosphere & I was so glad we had managed to do it.


Before we left we saw the zombie from earlier staggering around scaring people so I went to ask for a photo. He roared in my face again. I screamed!!

All in all a brilliant day & we are hoping to go back at Christmas time as the forest will look gorgeous all lit up in the dark.  I am, as predicted, suffering badly for it but it was expected & the memories made were most definitely worth it.





Ali 
xx



4 comments

  1. Awwww. So made up you got to do this. Xx

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  2. This looks like a brilliant day out. I'm so glad you managed to go. The ice skating looks like so much fun :) I hope your body is being kind to you now x

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    Replies
    1. Thanks so much Donna :) so glad I made it! The skating was brilliant!! My body still hates me for it but I don't care haha xx

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