Geronimo – a great family day out!

Above; Dr Davidson Esquire demonstrating how to clean Horace the Pilosaur’s teeth and wings!

For the third year running, we packed up the car with ourselves, the kids (Emily aged 5 and Nile nearly 4), a hefty picnic and excitedly headed to Arley Hall & Gardens, near Knutsford.

We arrived just after 10am and – as usual – breezed into the festival ground with ease – anyone with small children knows that nightmare parking and long queues are not a good start to any day out – so, despite the rain, we were off to a good start.

We grabbed a copy of the informative brochure, containing a what’s on guide, including times and locations of the various shows and activities.

As always, our first port of call was to the donkey rides. This is guaranteed to fill both of our young ones with great excitement, and the best thing for mums and dads is that donkey rides are included in the ticket price (a rarity in this day and age).

Next, we marched off to the circus tent, but sadly – despite being there 30 minutes before the show, it was already full to capacity. . . this may have had something to do with the unsettled weather.

We herded the kids over to the ‘hobby horse jumping arena’, where they had a wonderful time galloping around and practicing their jumping skills, with their chosen steed!

Then it was on to the ‘rocking horse tent’ – a gazebo filled with every imaginable shape and size of rocking horse – you could even wear a riding hat while you let your imagination gallop away with you. Both my kids loved this area and revelled in jumping from one rocking horse to another – it provided a welcome shelter from the weather too, as the heavens opened.

Thankfully the rain eased, just in time for us to see the talented young jockeys doing the ‘Shetland Pony racing’.

Following a spot of lunch in front of the main stage, we headed back over to the ‘Craft and Curiosity area’, where they were holding wand making workshops, giving you the chance to learn greenwood wood working techniques and make your very own wand.

Onwards and upwards, we headed to the Green Peace Woodland Zone, where the kids spent a very happy hour or so exploring the hand built wooden fort – scaling towers, climbing ladders, carefully crossing bridges. . .they would have happily spent all day on here – all my son was missing was his wooden sword, purchased last year! It also gave mum and dad the opportunity to enjoy a wonderful coffee from the Green Peace café. They also had an amazing treetop net for the older kids – where they could jump, roll and generally muck about! This area was the epitome of the Geronimo vibe of previous years – and was definitely one of our favourite areas this year.

Next to the Circus Zone – with a good 50 minutes to spare before the next Circus show – panic took hold when I saw the size of the queue snaking away from the entrance gates, but we thankfully made it in and managed to grab a good spot for the kids to see the show.

My daughter LOVED the show – it was nearly all women performers (save for the one clown) and tightrope walking, ribbon aerobatics, laser dancing and more entranced her.

On route to find the ‘Amazing Animal Zone’ we stumbled across some hay bales – which caused much laughter as a hay fight ensued.

Then we came upon another large craft tent – which lifted my heart immensely – in we marched to create potato people with matchstick hair, googly eyes and lollypop bodies and one of our favourite activities from last year – paint your own wooden spoon.

Next we ventured to ‘Horace the Pliosaur’, where the children were ushered inside the belly of the magnificent beast to watch a short film, while Dr Davidson Esquire (presumably the creator of Horace’, kept other children passing by, entertained by showing them how to clean Horace’s teeth and wings!

Finally we made to the ‘Amazing Animal Zone’, where there was Shetland ponies, sheep, guinea pigs rabbits and bunnies and my little ones were overjoyed when they realised they could hold the bunnies . . .

– and spent a joyous 20 or so minutes in the area taking it in turns with the other children to snuggle the friendly balls of fluff. . . the only disappointment for them was that we couldn’t take one home!

One last donkey ride signalled the end of the day for us.

Geronimo is a great day out for the whole family, especially the younger ones.

In Emily’s words “We had the best day out!”. That’ll do me nicely. . . thank you Geronimo.

Geronomi, at Arley Hall in Cheshire, runs from 24th – 27th May.

https://www.geronimofest.com

All images ⓒ karisellars.com