Today did not start well. Forrest has been difficult at times on this holiday. He has taken to doing small niggly mean things to his sister and also not so small things such as the other day when he completed a running shoulder barge move, which any rugby player would be proud of, sending Paloma flying into the sand. This came to a head this morning over something relatively minor but resulting in much shouting, many tears and a confinement to his room while we tried to reason with him and get him to calm down. This ultimately resulted in a two hour delay in departure which wasn’t quite as bad as it sounds as we decided to eat our picnic lunch early at home before heading out to make things easier and to give the kids a chance to make peace both with each other and us!
Now as many of you who have followed this blog will know, when we were on our road trip earlier this year we partook in two dry toboggan runs which all of us loved. So when we discovered there was one of these on the Isle of Wight we knew we wanted to give it a go. The toboggan run was one of the attractions at the Robin Hill Country Park and they were also running an Autumn Evenings event for no extra charge where they were keeping selected parts of the park open later than usual with parts of their woodlands illuminated and entertainment from DJ’s and live bands. There was just one problem. (and this sentence seems familiar). The British weather. The dry toboggan run can only run when it is dry and the start of the day was definitely not that! We had hopes that it might clear enough to dry up but whilst the rain did stop, the air remained damp with occasional drizzle and so unfortunately we were out of luck. The kids were disappointed (well Forrest was, Paloma just wanted the hot doughnuts we had mentioned that we could smell at this point) but thankfully there were enough other attractions including said doughnuts (and some amazing chocolate filled churros) to distract them.
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| Forrest and Daddy by The Parting. |
The site of Robin Hill is quite compact and some of the climbing areas were smaller than we had expected, especially the ones that Paloma was old/tall enough to take part in but there was certainly enough to entertain the kids. Forrest loved the Colossus Swinging Galleon ride and the Jungle Heights suspended net maze. They had introduced a one way system on the Jungle Heights which worked really well but as an adult it was hard work and after two goes round with him, I decided that Forrest had now advanced a year and five days to aged 7 and could have his final trip round unaccompanied. Without the one way system I don’t think I would have allowed this as I could imagine it getting quite boisterous in free flow but everyone was observing social distancing really well and Forrest enjoyed scrambling round by himself for a bit.
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| One of many rides on the Colossus Swinging Galleon, but the only one with daddy! |
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| Jungle Heights. |
Paloma is not quite as gung-ho as her brother but there were smaller climbing frames, some diggers and a really well built play village that she enjoyed running around. There were also multiple rides on the Cows Express train ride.
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| Some of the less gung-ho attractions! |
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| Paloma and Forrest on the Cows Express. |
With the normal day drawing to a close we started working our way to the African Adventure area where we planned to have a bite to eat and enjoy some of the evening entertainment. This was by far the best of the play areas in my opinion with bits for all ages in one contained area. The music on this stage was a local group called Fusion Party Band and they performed a mix of modern pop with a few random classics thrown in for good measure. We listened to their first set whilst enjoying food from the Savanna BBQ and then had a last quick go on the play area before using the enticement of toasted marshmallows to get the kids moving on.
The marshmallow toasting station was absolutely brilliant but I have no idea how it can possibly pass health and safety as it was basically an unattended fire pit for which you were supplied with a marshmallow on an incredibly short stick to go and toast yourself. Every so often a “fire marshall” would suddenly appear, chuck another log on and then disappear again. Forrest initially attempted to toast his himself but had to admit defeat as the sticks just weren’t long enough for him to safely reach the really hot parts of the fire and the marshmallows were so ginormous he would have been there for hours so I was handed it under strict instructions to gently toast it and not set fire to it (deliberately) like I did my own and Paloma’s!
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| Marshmallow fun! |
After the marshmallows we made our way to the exit via the illuminated walkways and once back at the car, I sat in the middle back seat so I could poke the kids awake if they dared to drop off on the half hour drive home. The quickest bedtime ever then followed as they had been allowed to stay up “SO SO late” and the kids were tucked up and asleep by 8.30pm which is actually an early night by their standards but don’t tell them that!
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| The walk to the car through the illuminated walkways. |
Blogged by Amber.
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