Gruffalo Hunting – Thorndon Country Park

At 18 months old Ethan discovered The Gruffalo. It started with the book, which led to even more books, toys, games, and even a chocolate Gruffalo. The Gruffalo was Ethan’s first obsession. At its height, we could easily read this book to him all day if we allowed it. My new party trick was to recite this book word for word. With all of Ethan’s obsessions, we do indulge them as it’s nice to have something to enjoy and connect with him. Last year I noticed that some of my Facebook friends were posting pictures of themselves with a Gruffalo. With the realisation my Dad knew where the Gruffalo was, we set off to find him. It was our turn to go Gruffalo Hunting at Thorndon Country Park.

Gruffalo Hunting In 2012

Armed with the map provided we started our search and easily found the mouse.

Next, it was time to find the main man himself, The Gruffalo. Ethan recognised him right away and ran around him in circles. As Ethan looked at the Gruffalo I recited the words from the book.

He has terrible tusks, and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws.

He has knobbly knees, and turned-out toes,
and a poisonous wart at the end of his nose. His eyes are orange, his tongue is black, he has purple prickles all over his back.

Oh help! Oh no! It’s a gruffalo!

Finally, we set off to find the Gruffalo’s child. He was harder to find but we found him in the end…

We had a lovely afternoon in the park and as Darren was at work the day we visited he promised he would take us again. 

Visiting The Gruffalo In 2013

Fast forward to this year and I had noticed, again from Facebook, that more of the characters had been added to the Gruffalo trail. It was time for us to visit again, this time with daddy.

This year the map cost 50p. They must have been printing so many for the visitors that want to go Gruffalo hunting.

As with last year, the mouse was the first character to find. Ethan had just woken up from being asleep. He wasn’t very happy to be Gruffalo hunting and wanted to go back to the car!

With the mouse found and Ethan happier we set off to find the fox. He was very good at hiding and it took us some time but we finally found his hiding spot.

With the fox checked off of the list we then had to find the owl. Thankfully he was easy to spot.

The snake was next and we spent most of our time with him as Ethan really interacted with him.

After Ethan had enough time with the snake it was time to find the Gruffalo’s child. He had been moved to a spot that was easier to find. 

Lastly it was time to say hello to the main man himself…

…I love that Ethan is holding his hand in this photo, I didn’t even realise it until I looked back through the photos. A great capture for our photo album.

We had another lovely morning Gruffalo hunting. We visited the park early as it was a weekend, my advice to anyone wishing to visit at the weekend would be to go early as there are lots of people Gruffalo hunting.

Our recent to visit the Gruffalo at Thorndon Country Park was in the summer of 2018. This was part of a school project for Little E.