Kielder Forest and Water Park is in Northumberland. We drove down from Hawick with our friends the Jones as part of a day off from cycling. What a fantastic place to visit – we shall definitely be going back again! The are lots of walks and mountain bike rides through the forest and round the lake. We opted for a walk through the forest up to something called Skyspace.

We parked in the Kielder Castle visitor centre car park (near a mountain bike hire place).

There was a maze made of walls of rocks held in place by wire cages which entertained us for a while.

Setting off up hill through the forest we were surprised that the forest floor was like a green carpet.

At the top of the hill there were some fabulous views. It was here that we found Skyspace.

Skyspace was a very interesting place. It was good to be able to sit there just looking up at the sky. Apparently it is also a good place to visit at dawn and dusk.

Whilst we were there we also found a geo-cache that was located close by. It is not something that we had done before but was something that Andy Jones introduced us to. It is a little like a modern day treasure hunt. The locations of the caches (treasures) is online. You can download the coordinates into you satnav and also the clue on how to find it. They are always hidden in public places. It seems it can get addictive for some people!

From there we followed a forest track further up the hill to the observatory. This was a fascinating place. They had a series of special telescopes which they used to look at the sun.

They have special filters which stop you being blinded.

The volunteers that were there were very knowledgeable and interesting to listen to.

It made for a very spectacular and interesting day!

I would just like to say a very big thank you to ‘The Jones’ for looking after us so well, thanks guys!