I have to admit, we were late to the Stick Man party. We didn’t see Stick Man on TV over Christmas, instead it was our little one bringing Stick Man home from PreSchool, that introduced us to the character. Long story short, we soon had cries of “I’m Stick Man!” echoing around our house. When we realised there was a Stick Man trail at The Haldon Forest in Devon, we felt we had to go and find him.
As we both had a day off from work, we figured we would take advantage of going up to Haldon Forest on a quieter “school day”. After a 20 minute drive from Exeter, we found ourselves in Haldon Forest on a damp January Friday. Much to the Little Ones frustration we didn’t run to find Stick Man, but fuelled ourselves up at “The Ridge Cafe”. (While Mummy also ran to pick up the “Activity Pack” from the rangers office.)
After food was eaten, we were off. Armed with a map from the activity pack… and help from the signs pointing us towards Stick Man, we went to find him. There 
were a number of characters from the book to look for, and challenges to take part in, while walking around the trail, (sadly due to the dampness we figured we should skip the challenges). After 10 minutes or so, we found ourselves with a giant Stick Man!
A giant Stick Man… who wasn’t too far way from a Gruffalo! In an attempt to show that the Gruffalo wasn’t something to be worried about, I ended up giving the children’s monster a giant hug. While our Little One still wasn’t impressed, I found the experience oddly relaxing.
We took her unkeenness at seeing the The Gruffalo (and the incoming storm) as a cue to go home. We’re planning on going back on a nicer day to really take a chance to enjoy it, and the play park equipment they have there.
If you or your Little One enjoys the adventures of Stick Man, I’d strongly recommend the Stick Man Trail at Haldon Forest. For more details of this, and other Stick Man Trails around England check out the Forestry Commission’s website.
The Stick Man DVD is now available from Amazon.co.uk – And its well worth a watch!