3 min read

The Woods in the Dark

Enjoying The Sights And Sounds Of The Woods At Night

I‘d recently looked at the list of adventures we’d set out for this year and I was sadly greeted with a list that hadn’t really been touched. It’s not like we’d not done anything, or that we’d spent most weekends sitting around the house. No, we’d done plenty with the girls but we’d not focused on the list for a while.

With that in mind I hatched the plan to take them all out into the woods at night. This was something they’d never done before and seeing as we’re surrounded by woods where we live [pretty much] all it would take is a short stroll up the road and we’d be in the deep, dark woods!

I sorted out a circular walk (see below) that wasn’t too far but far enough to make it worthwhile.

Shelli picked up some more head torches to make sure that we each had one – it doesn’t take much for an argument to kick off and not having enough for each of the girls was never an option!

Around 7pm Saturday evening we pulled on our walking boots, put on our head torches and headed up the road.

As you’d expect there were a few nerves on display. None of the girls had done this before and they were a little bit worried about it. I knew there was nothing to be afraid of but hey, there’s not a great deal that scares me!

By the time we’d reached the woods the girls were loving being out in the dark, and it didn’t take them long once we were actually in the woods for them to lose all of their nerves and literally jump into the adventure! They were loving it!

About half way round I set up the tripod and the camera so that we could all have a go at painting with light, i.e. setting the camera on a slow exposure and waiving their torches around to make light patterns. We’d done this before last Halloween with sparklers but they loved the idea of using the torches out in the woods to have another go.

Once we’d all had a few attempts at drawing squiggles, letters and random shapes we packed up the tripod and carried on our way back home.

They all did brilliantly and were very very pleased with themselves for having given it a go. I’m so proud of all of my girls. They really do have a go at pretty much everything we throw at them, and long may that continue!

As for the adventure list, this one little trip out managed to tick off three items:

  1. Journey round our home
  2. Walk the woods in the dark
  3. Paint with light

Photos

Route Details

If you’re interested you can download the KML file and/or GPX file of the plotted route. Please be aware though that the route was hand-plotted and so may not be 100% accurate.

Walk Statistics

Miles Start (HH:MM) Finish (HH:MM) Breaks (HH:MM) Walking (HH:MM) Pace (MPH) Steps Taken
2.91 19:00 21:00 00:45 01:15 2.32 7,608

Route Map

Elevation Details

Start Elavation (m) End Elavation (m) Max Elevation (m) Min Elevation (m) Total Climb (m) Total Descent (m) Climbs on Route
171 172 186 139 76 -75 0

More information about climb ratings can be found at Map My Walk.