Essex and Suffolk water’s Abberton Reservoir is one of Europe’s top wetland sites and lies close to the east coast migration routes. There are two hides available for dedicated birdwatchers but we were here to get some fresh air and enjoy the sunshine with the grandchildren. At the visitors centre we paid £10 which gave us admission for the family, the hire of some nature packs and two maps for the character trail. The visitor centre has toilets, a shop and a café for refreshments. Outside there is a children’s play area with various climbing frames and apparatus. The map and the main draw for us was the Brambly Hedge Trail which gave the children a mapped out trail to follow and seven wooden characters to find from the classic stories. There are also questions to answer to keep them interested
The nature packs contained some binoculars, a magnifying glass, a jar to collect bugs, and books to be able to identify the birds and insects we discovered. In all honesty they weren’t much use at this time of year but would be a lot of fun in the spring/summer.
There is free parking on site and some of the trails are wheelchair friendly, they also claimed to have wheelchairs and electric buggies available for use (please check with them before getting there).
We enjoyed our visit and will come again in the spring/summer.