We love getting out and exploring different places and discovering new places to explore. With the coronavirus pandemic though, I’ve been keen to avoid places that are likely to be very busy. Our plans for this particular sunny Sunday in early September took us over to Ruislip. Normally if we’re exploring outdoors in Ruislip, we’d head for Ruislip Lido, but I knew it was likely to be packed. We decided instead to head for Bayhurst Wood for an afternoon walk.
Bayhurst Wood is an area of ancient semi-natural woodland which is part of Ruislip Woods, a remnant of the Wildwood that once covered England after the end of the last Ice Age. There’s a good-sized car park just off Breakspear Road North, although the entrance to it is easy to miss. We drove past and completely missed it first time!
I’d never been to Bayhurst Wood before, but hubby used to go there on Boys’ Brigade days out. As expected, it was lovely and quiet.
Sophie found herself a “magic fairy wand” as we entered the wood – a long stick with oak leaves at the end, perfect for a woodland fairy. Thomas was enjoying a nap in the buggy, but woke up halfway through our walk.
We were using the geocaching app to try and navigate through the woods although some of the paths marked on the map weren’t very easy to find. The main paths through the woods aren’t too difficult to navigate with the buggy, although we did have to lift it over the occasional fallen log. The smaller paths are a little more tricky though, but we managed to get through them.
There were two geocaches marked on the map. The first one was very easy to find – a nice big container with swaps inside. Sophie was a little disappointed that we didn’t have anything with us to swap and so we just signed the log and replaced it. We couldn’t find the second one though. I’m sure we had the right spot, but a look at the activity history suggests that it might have been missing.
Sophie and Thomas had fun exploring together, running ahead of us every so often and then stopping whenever something caught their eye. They particularly enjoyed taking a closer look at the den we found along the way.
Sophie is such an attentive big sister. It was lovely to watch her helping Thomas over logs and holding his hand as they explored together.
We all enjoyed our walk around Bayhurst Woods. It was a lovely peaceful place to get away from everything and make the most of the last of the summer sunshine.
Visiting Bayhurst Wood – what you need to know:
Address:
Bayhurst Wood
Breakspear Road North
Harefield
UB9 6LX
Opening times:
The car park is open from 9am. Closing times vary from 4pm – 8pm depending on the time of year. For more information, click here.
