The Square Peg visits Cannock Chase.
During the Easter holidays we went away for the week and stayed at Silver Trees Holiday park on Cannock Chase.
Silver Trees holiday park is a small and quiet park. It has mainly privately owned static caravans with around 15 units that they hire out. There is an indoor swimming pool (closed at the moment due to COVID 19) and a tennis court. It is a ten minute walk to the Birches Valley Area of Cannock Chase that has various mountain bike trails, Go Ape, Segway, toilets and a cafe.
Feeding the Deer
Cannock Chase is an area of outstanding natural beauty and is home to Fallow Deer. There are deers wandering around the park all of the time. You can buy deer food from the office and feed the deer by hand. Both Matthew and Edward were amazed by this experience.
There are some rules around keeping the park quiet because of the deer, such as no ball games, no cycling on the site and a 5mph speed limit. The owner enforces these rules quite strictly.
We stayed in Stags View Lodge, it was a lovely warm, comfortable lodge with a beautiful view over the chase. It was great for wildlife watching. We saw some Jays and foxes as well as all of the deer.
Mountain Biking Trails
Edward’s older brother Matthew loves mountain biking and he was really excited that there were great trails on Cannock Chase. Incidentally, this is where the mountain biking for the Commonwealth games 2022 is taking place. Matthew and Daddy cycled a total of 150 miles during the week. They did the red trails such as Follow the Dog and the Monkey Trail.
If you’ve read my previous posts about Edward riding a bike you may be surprised to learn that Edward asked to take his bike onto Cannock Chase. He was fabulous and cycled the green trail.
Den Building
There was also a den building area that Edward loved. He adores playing with sticks and leaves so this was ideal for him. Mummy wasn’t too impressed having to stand in the cold wood when all she wanted to do was stand in the sun.
Walking the Dogs
During the week, we had lots of friends and family visit for walks with us on Cannock Chase. One day our friends brought over their dogs. They had a old black Labrador called Louis and a little Shih Tzu called Misty.
In the past, Edward has always been terrified of dogs. Everytime he sees one, he runs off screaming and jumps up my leg clinging to me like a Chimpanzee. However, these two doggies were very calm and placid. I was amazed that Edward wanted to stroke them and hold their leads and took them on a walk. I think perhaps that we should get a puppy now. It will be amazing for Edward to learn responsibility.
What a busy week we had! We were exhausted. It was definitely an adjustment going from no going anywhere during lockdown to being out and about everyday. However, we have all come back feeling refreshed and it was so good to catch up with friends and family after such a long time.
I still believe that being outdoors in nature as much as possible is the best thing for autistic children. During this week, Edward has grown in confidence on his bike and overcame his fear of dogs.
