Thetford Forest - High Lodge

Auntie Jane is coming. So Missus Mopp ordered us out of the house so she could clean it 'properly'. "And I don't want you coming back for lunch.", she said to me and the girls.

So time for an expedition, and a chance to take bikes for us all.

Three very different shaped bikes, but I got them on the car roof no bother* and we set off for High Lodge, at the centre of Thetford Forest. It is easy to get to from Bury St Edmunds. Drive up the A134 to Thetford, go straight across the A11 when you get to it onto the B1107 towards Brandon and there is a turning to the left after a couple of miles. It costs £5 per car.

You can hire bikes there and there are 4 waymarked cycle trails to follow. We chose the green Family Trail. Now even this was being a bit bold - Little Miss had been riding her bike without stabilisers for only 2 days. But she did brilliantly and the tassles were flying.

In the distance you can see Big Miss waiting for us and peering up into the trees. She was watching people Go Ape.

Hugely popular, I've not done it myself, but the missus did on a girls' day out a couple of years ago. It is great fun, whizzing from tree to tree.

We got back safely to the High Lodge centre where the air-conditioned restaurant was very welcome, even though the food choice wasn't great.

Outside, the grassy area looked more like a desert than a green and pleasant land.

Another thing to do at High Lodge, is to hunt out the giant play sculptures in the form of animals. One of them is the eponymous centrepiece of the Squirrel's Maze.

We've been a few times before so we know our way through the maze now, but there were some people in there who were definitely lost.

By now it was pretty hot, so we headed for home, sneaked into the house to get our swimming things and went to cool down in the pool at the Health Club. They should be pretty tired after all that! But they can't sleep in. Auntie Jane is coming this morning.

*My cycle carrier solution came from The Roofbox Company. I have Atera GIRO AF carriers mounted on Thule rapid system aero roof bars. Expensive, but well engineered and (importantly, for the vertically challenged) easy to lift the bikes onto/off.