Ruislip lido, railway & woods (social distancing edition)

Onwards with our social distancing versions of days out with the kids.

Last week I took Biggie, Middlie and Littlie to Ruislip and we had a fantastic, muddy time in wet weather.

Since the crazy crowds after lockdown eased, Ruislip lido (beach) has been closed, which includes the playground. However the miniature railway is running (limited seating to keep distancing), and the cafe is open for takeaway orders.

Getting there

Parking was more difficult than I realised, mainly because I made it complicated:

1. I didn’t follow the signs and had to turn around at Willow Lawn station, which is resident’s parking only. The visitors parking is adjacent and just a 3 minute walk from the miniature railway station.
2. Parking meters in the visitors car park only accept CASH. Cue a trip to the nearest cash machine at the local garage.

Trains for Littlie

We arrived at Willow Lawn station and bought return tickets on the miniature railway. It took us on a 5-10 minute trip to Woody Bay station, which is right by the lido and cafe. Littlie was ecstatic and even Biggie and Middlie had a great time. Lots of smiles all round, and plenty of people to wave at.

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Fun in the woods

I happened to bump into a friend as we arrived so we decided to explore the woods by the shoreline first.

The path between the shore and the railway continues all round the lake and there are planet info-stations that are posted at intervals down the path. I presume they cover all the planets on the walk, but we only made it as far as the first one… too many detours into the woods and onto the shoreline to cover any significant distance.

No complaints here, though, as the kids had a whale of a time playing in the trees, making dens, exploring the paths and so on.

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We retraced our steps to the cafe to get the kids an ice cream and then we headed into the woods on the South side of the railway. There was a big fallen tree to climb immediately on the left, and then the woods just went on an on!

This place is very big and would be fantastic on bikes if you really wanted to see more of it. I believe there’s a stables nearby and you can go horse-riding on the bridle path that follows the circumference of the woods.

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Final thoughts…

I was really surprised by our trip to Ruislip. Despite the fact that the lido and playground were closed, we had loads of fun exploring the woods, riding the miniature railway and jumping in muddy puddles. We’ll definitely going back again!