A morning walk at Cefn Onn Park

Cefn Onn country park is situated in North Cardiff, approximately a five minute drive away from our home. It’s a well known local park, but one that I tend to forget exists because it just seems so out of place where it is! It’s hidden away at the end of a long road and accessible via a long path that runs under a motorway bridge. This beautiful woodland park is a real hidden gem!

The last time we visited Cefn Onn was when our girls were little. We brought the double pushchair with us and I always remember watching my husband struggling to push the pushchair up a particularly steep area that leads into a field.

This time around our girls are almost five years old so they were able to walk. One of my resolutions for 2017 is to spend more time outdoors. So the Sunday before last we decided to go for a nice walk around Cefn Onn.

There is a small car park at the entrance which is free, although the car park is quite small and can get quite busy. We walked under the motorway bridge which has been beautifully painted by the friends of Cefn Onn group.

Dogs are allowed in the park and although there are numerous signs stating that they must be kept on leads at all times, we saw lots of people who didn’t have leads on their dogs. This did pee me off a little, mainly because M is scared of dogs, so when a few came bounding up to us, it did ruin the experience a bit, but not totally!

We followed the path through the park and the girls pointed out the numerous water courses that run through the park. They took their time to have a look at them and we posed for a few photos too!

We spotted bird houses on the trees and the girls enjoyed playing amongst the trees and walking along the trees that had been cut down.

The girls particularly liked a little red bridge that went over a small water course and asked if we could walk back over it on our way back to the car!

As we walked along the path, R spotted a tree that looked like it had a face on it! We started to talk about the tree and how we thought that it could come to life at night time to tell stories to the other trees and animals that live in the park. As such we as named the tree, the story tree!

Toward the end of the path is a fairly large pond. When we first visited Cefn Onn a few years ago there were ducks there, but there weren’t any on our most recent trip. However, we did spot a rather large orange fish!

We made our way up the path and soon came to an open field with picnic benches dotted around. It’s funny because I don’t remember the picnic benches being there the last time we visited! R asked if we could have a picnic the next time we go there, which sounds like a pretty good idea to me!

Whilst in the field, the girls found two long sticks each and started to play with them! Waving them around like wands, dragging them on the floor behind them and using them as walking sticks! It always amazes me how much fun children can have in natures playground.

We found a pile of logs and my husband showed them to our girls and told them about how you can find out how old a tree is by counting the rings.

M was keen to climb some of trees and both girls enjoyed sitting on a tree branch!

On the way back to the car, R, was pointing things out that she found interesting so we stopped a few times to investigate.

We also let the girls have a little paddle in one of the water courses!

By the time we made it back to the car, two hours had passed by! It’s amazing how quickly time flies when you’re having fun!