Highway Rat trail at Jeskyns near Gravesend gives Our Kent Family their first 2018 outing

"Give me your buns and your biscuits! Give me your chocolate eclairs! For I am the Rat of the highway, and the Rat Thief never shares."

Does this sound like anyone else's small child or just mine?

Always on the lookout for food, prone to demanding a biscuit, not inclined to share the sugar? This really is my four-year-old.

Stand and deliver!
Stand and deliver!

And after far too many days indoors begging for sweet-treats thanks to bad Christmas habits, we called time on the New Year vegging and at the first sniff of sunshine this week went in search of a fitting January outing.

You know the kind of trip I mean - something outside, simple, slightly energetic and somewhat economical.

The Highway Rat activity trail, which has ridden into two Kent forests this winter, ticks all the boxes.

Introduced by The Forestry Commission to both Bedgebury Pinetum and Jeskyns and based on the popular Highway Rat adaptation by Julia Donaldson it involves purchasing a £3 activity trail pack, complete with a highway man mask, and running for your lives through the woods.

The Highway Rat activity pack is £3
The Highway Rat activity pack is £3

And while you're unlikely to happen across a bun, biscuit or chocolate eclair unless you gallop past the cafe/get dragged there by whinging complaining children professing that they risk passing out from starvation (just mine again?), you'll be a willing hostage to a host of creative activities you can find and take part in along the way.

Ready, steady, run!
Ready, steady, run!

There are characters from the story to spot on signs peppered along the route, beautiful bright boards to read, and questions to answer in relation to the story, nature and wildlife found within the woodland,

Your activity sheet also asks you to create four stencil rubbings of food the Highway Rat enjoys, which using the wax crayon contained within your pack, you can track down on wooden posts and stumps hidden within the trail and there is also a lovely suggestion for an activity involving a stick and a (provided) piece of string in which you are encouraged to make a fishing rod style collection of things you find during your walk.

Oscar has a go at one of the stencil-rubbings found on the route.
Oscar has a go at one of the stencil-rubbings found on the route.

Having tried the interactive Gruffalo trail at Bedgebury last year, we opted for an outing to Jeskyns, the community woodland off the A2 near Cobham.

Parking is just £1.50, there is usually enough of it, and there are two popular adventure playgrounds for a post-trail play.

There is also a gorgeous little elf and fairy village of wooden sculptures hidden in woodland behind the largest play area, which gives you another thing to see.

Don't miss the Fairy Village if you visit Jeskyns
Don't miss the Fairy Village if you visit Jeskyns

Jeskyns has plenty of woodland and grassy areas to let you go off-piste, and for some parts of the trail this is necessary, but for the most part the gravel pathways don't make this an utter mud bath.

We made it, with our food supplies intact!
We made it, with our food supplies intact!

And while it's hard in January through post-festive exhaustion to find much to do, particularly when so many Kent attractions are either closed or operating much shorter opening hours, this is absolutely ideal and a real must for the new year bucket list if you have children.

Just don't forget the snacks.

The Highway Rat trail
The Highway Rat trail

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