National Park Walks with Kids: South Downs National Park

Susanna (@thetravelbobbers), mum of 2 shares her favourite walks in the South Downs National Park with us as part of our National Park Walks with Kids series, for National Walking Month.

One of our favourite spots in the South Downs National Park to go walking has to be Houghton Forest, just north of Arundel in West Sussex. As a family we have always loved the forests. Our daughter Poppy has recently turned 3 and we have been taking her away in our campervan regularly since she was just a few weeks old. We have camped and gone for walks in countless forests and woodland areas, and Poppy absolutely adores collecting sticks, leaves, pinecones and acorns, and squelching about in the mud! There’s just something so special about being amongst a thick canopy of trees with nothing but the sound of birds and your feet crunching on the leaves of the forest floor.

We have recently extended our family by getting our lovable golden lab Arlo last year, and 8 weeks ago we welcomed our son Jack into the world so we’re now a proud family of 5! Houghton Forest isn’t far from our home and it’s a great place for dog walkers and young families, and the perfect place to spend a sunny Sunday! The Houghton Forest Circular route is a 4.7km loop walk through the forest taking on average around 1 hour and 25 minutes to complete. With only one steep hill to climb its generally considered an easy walk, perfect for little legs and baby wearing.

The car park at the start of the route is home to Whiteways Takeaway Kiosk, an extremely popular spot for bikers. Of course it’s always great to be able to get refreshements at the start or the end of a walk, and promises of ice cream for the little ones! They even serve doggy ice cream to keep the pooch’s happy which Arlo has sampled a number of times! On this occasion we told Poppy we would stop there at the end of the route, and so we set off into the forest.

One of the best things about this walk for Poppy is the array of rope swings that are dotted through the trees at the start of the route. It can get fairly busy around here at the weekends, as visitors to the café venture in to play on the swings, but we did manage to find a tyre swing for her to play on which she absolutely adored! As we continued on the route it was far less busy. We were blessed with a lovely sunny day, and Poppy was happy as anything running along the path singing, stopping to pick dandelions and searching for muddy puddles. The forest gets extremely boggy during the winter months much to Poppy’s delight, as she loves to get mucky like any toddler! This time of year however isn’t so bad, but we were able to find a few puddles for her to splash about in. Fortunately she was wearing her Spotty Otter Puddle Suit. It’s completely waterproof and extremely durable, perfect for puddles! I absolutely love the bright colour as well, at least I know it will be hard to lose her amongst the trees wearing bright yellow!

The path continues through the trees, passing huge stacks of logs along the way. Poppy enjoyed her usual activities including finding pine cones, running ahead and then running back to us over and over again and stopping to look for bugs. She was having a great time! We passed a few other walkers along the way, as well as a fair few mountain bikers who Poppy always likes to wave to as they pass. Arlo also had a blast saying a very excitable hello to every passing dog! We stuck to the main route, but there are many intersecting trails through the forest so you could easily adapt your route to suit your needs. Some of the routes are great for mountain biking and more strenuous hiking.

All that running back and forth makes for tired little legs, so Poppy enjoyed a carry on Daddy’s back for a little while as we climbed up the steeper section of the hill before looping back around. The last section of the walk takes you back down through the forest, eventually linking up to where the rope swings are, so Poppy was thrilled to have another play on the swings. We then finished our walk by making our way to the Whiteways takeaway kiosk for a drink and a snack, and of course we had one very happy toddler with a chocolate ice cream as a reward!

In total the walk took us an hour and 50 minutes. This is taking into account the time playing on the swings and in the puddles, and Poppy stopping regularly to pick up things off the forest floor and search for bugs! Poppy was probably carried for around 30 minutes, so she did very well to walk most of the way! I would really recommend this route to anyone with small children. The swings really add some fun for little ones, the route is easy and incredibly peaceful, and when you can finish with a chocolate ice cream, what’s not to love?! Happy Poppy, happy Arlo, and happy Mummy and Daddy! I assume Jack was happy.. he slept the entire way!