I like to try and find new and different places to visit with the girls and I saw a post on a Facebook group about a place called Coolings green and pleasant. Now from what I could work out before we went was that it was a nature place and we were expecting a nature reserve type thing but with a few birds of prey at the beginning, well how wrong we were!!
It is actually part of a large garden centre, which also has a fantastic tea room/cafe with lots of amazing homemade cakes, which of course we had to try and just so you know we highly recommend the meringue , rocky road and bread pudding.
Once we had tasted the tea rooms delights, we set off for the nature trail. The entry fee is a very reasonable £6.99 for adults and £4.49 for children or you could purchase a family season pass for just £64.99 and that allows you to visit as many times as you want and covers 2 adults and up to 3 children to enter.
The nature trail is set over 6 acres, has plenty of wooded area and meadow habitat and has a network of bark pathways for you to walk round, so you can see all the animals. What we loved about the setting was because the enclousure’s were spaced out it didn’t feel like a zoo, it actually felt very calm and relaxing.
Whilst at Coolings green and pleasant nature trail you will get to see various birds of prey, including the endangered Lugger Falcon plus wallabies, pigs, goats, raccoon dogs, chickens, ducks, geese, ferrets, rabbits, a cute minature horse and my favourite the alpaccas. There are various displays and animal encounters going on throughout the day, so make sure to check the timetable of events.
We thought that ‘The tree of memories’ was such a lovely thing to have as well, where you can tie a piece of coloured ribbon on one of its branches in memory of a loved one and then place a donation into the box, that is raising money for ‘The Chartwell Cancer Trust’
Make sure you have plenty of 20p’s for the feed machines. The pigs are very clever and know the sound of the little machine, so they rush to the feeding pipes and wait for the food to come.
The conservation stuff they do at the Nature trail is fantastic, the bird that Chloe and I am holding below is a Lugger falcon and Willows bird of prey centre have joined with the Lugger Project to help stop/prevent the cruel killing of the Lugger falcon, by breeding more of the birds to then release them back into the wild. You can read more about it here
This place really is one of Kent’s little hidden treasures and is well worth a visit. This is their website for the information you will need to plan your trip.