Gruffalo Spotting in Cannack Chase - 1st May 2017

 Alex is a big fan of the Gruffalo and he wanted to go Gruffalo hunting. I had heard about the Gruffalo Spotter App that the Forestry Commission had done for the ipad so we downloaded it and then checked the Forestry website to find our nearest Gruffalo trail. We discovered that there was one at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. It was only about a 30-45 minutes drive from our home so we packed the car and off we went...

Once we had arrived at Cannock Chase Forest we headed for the trail. We turned on the Gruffalo Spotter app and got ready to begin.



The idea of the app is to bring the characters from the story to life. On the trail we needed to look for clues which lead to footprint signs. At these signs is where the magic of the app happens. You point your device at the footprints and watch as the Mouse, Fox, Owl, Snake and the Gruffalo come to life right in front of you on the screen.





We had great fun hunting for the clues and finding each of the characters. Despite the drizzly weather, we still enjoyed it and Alex thoroughly enjoyed watching the characters come to life when we found the footprints for each of the characters.

                           Who is it?

 

 

One thing that I thought was great on the trail was that if you hadn't got the app to do the magical bringing the characters to life , then you could still find the characters as they had cut outs of them near the footprints.

 Here is Fox.

 

 

After we followed all the clues, and found Mouse, Fox, Owl and Snake, we only had the Gruffalo to find and Alex was so excited to find him.

 



Again there is a giant wooden Gruffalo for those without the app, but to be honest even those with the app were all having pictures with the Gruffalo - I mean you just have to, after all its not everyday you meet the Gruffalo.

What a magical thing for children to see and for the characters to come to life on the screen right before their eyes and have the photos from the app as memories of when they met them.
We all enjoyed the trail and had a lot of fun doing it.

After the trail we had lunch and then back into the forest for more fun and adventures. We had great fun jumping and splashing in puddles, building dens, finding where the fairies lived, and just having a great time as a family creating memories.

 After all the fun in the forest Alex spent some time on the playground doing the obstacle course over and over. He had a great time and was so confident to try all the challenges by himself. We then ended the day with ice cream.

We had a great family day out