Family Holiday Activities
WITH OR WITHOUT ACCOMMODATION

Bring your family to an exciting wilderness experience
at The Sustainability Centre in the South Downs.

Our survival and nature exploration is inspired by John Muir, the adventurer, survival expert and botanist.
​He climbed mountains and glaciers with just an axe and washing line. He survived by creating natural shelters, identifying plants for food, medicine and using traditional wood crafts.

We have designed our activities to be COVID secure and socially distant, whilst still having plenty of fun.
With two different workshops each day, families can have a full day out if they choose.

Times

AGE GUIDE
​Morning     
10.30am to 12.30pm
Afternoon   
1.30pm to 3.30 pm
Age 7+

Wild Camp Design 3

Wed 26th Oct
​10.30am - 12.30pm

Create your own wild area learning how to build a survival shelter so you can live outdoors just like John Muir did in the great wilderness. Make a camp fire and hone your fire-lighting skills.

​​Bed and breakfast accommodation can be booked for the night before, as part of this activity.

EXPLORE WILD FOOD 3

Thurs 27th Oct
​10.30am - 12.30pm

Explore wild food - Return to wild ways with a walk to discover tree and plant uses. In this activity learn about plants, forage for wild food and understand the importance of our chalk downland countryside.

​​Bed and breakfast accommodation can be booked for the night before, as part of this activity.

WILD CAMP COOKOUT 3  

Wed 26th Oct
​1.30pm - 3.30pm

Spend some time in a wild area in harmony with your surroundings. Make a nature book, identify flowers, discover the trees, learn songs and poems and spend time soaking in the atmosphere.

​​Bed and breakfast accommodation can be booked for the night before, as part of this activity.

NATURES MEDICINE 3  

Thurs 27th Oct
​1.30pm - 3.30pm

Discover wild medicine – Create a natural first aid kit to take home. A truly back to nature experience. Enhance the wellbeing of your whole family by discovering nature’s medicines and make wild potions for good health. 

​​Bed and breakfast accommodation can be booked for the night before, as part of this activity.

​​Family Groups

​Wild Ways Workshops are for family groups with up to 4 people aged 7+.
These adventures allow you to bring your family of up to 4 to an exciting
​wilderness experience.

ACTIVITY
As a family you will spend a morning or an afternoon in our 55 acre woodland with a Bushcraft expert. Have a go at building camp fires, making tools, building shelters, wild foraging and cooking.

£40 per half day activity
Up to 4 people

£170 per half day activity, including accommodation the night before
Up to 4 people

ACCOMMODATION
This will be Bed and Breakfast in our Eco Lodge the night before the activity.

​​Extra Information and Joining Instructions 

Ages
Check each workshop for minimum ages.
Clothing
Please wear appropriate clothing for all weather conditions. Closed foot wear and covered legs and arms will be required for both parents/carers and children. We recommend a change of clothing.

​Food
Please always bring lunch and snacks. As the cafe is not available on Mondays or Tuesdays, parents are welcome to bring a packed lunch and flask to consume after the class.

Leave No Trace
Remember we leave no trace in the woods so bring as little packaging in your snacks as possible. Also please bring a bag to take all of your rubbish away.
 
Our Grounds are Always Open to the Public
On arrival please come to the main reception to register. Bush Craft courses take place in a dedicated place in the woodland.

Dogs
Dogs may not be brought along to workshops and activities unless there is a Guide Dog, Hearing Dog or similar. 

Access
​Please let us know if you have any special requirements. We will do our very best to make workshops and activities accessible to people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.  

Age Limits
Age limits must be adhered to. 

Adult to Child Ratio
A parent/carer must attend with each child. Up to 3 children per parent/carer.

Younger Siblings
Younger siblings will not be able to attend.
​
FAMILY ACTIVITIES
CANCELLATION AND REFUNDS POLICY

3.5 a    We do not offer refunds for Family Activities except in extreme and exceptional circumstances.
 
3.5 b   We do offer credit notes to be spent on future Family Activities (within one year) subject 1 months’ notice of the Family Activity. An admin fee of 10% minimum £10 will be payable in all cases. Any difference in price will need to be paid by the customer. No refund for a lesser price will be possible and no partial credits will be held forward for another booking.

3.5 c   We can transfer your booking to one of your friends or family. An admin fee of 10%, minimum £10, will be payable.
   
3.5 d   Refunds Exceptional Circumstances
In exceptional circumstances, such as serious illness or hospitalisation customers may be eligible for a 50% refund. Customers would need to apply in writing/email. An admin fee of 10% minimum £10 will be payable. 

3.5 e   Adult Courses and Wood Mouse Courses
Adult Courses and Wood Mouse Refunds Policy varies and is tailored to those specific areas. Please see Terms and Conditions in those sections. 

​3.5 f   Course Cancellations
In the very unlikely event that we have to cancel a course or event, or have to cancel your booking for any other reason, we will refund your fees in full.​
 ​​John Muir Fact 
John Muir would live in the outdoors for weeks at a time cooking his own bread and brewing teas.

John Muir Quote
Just bread and water and delightful toil is all I need - not unreasonably much, yet one ought to be trained and tempered to enjoy life in these brave wilds in full independence of any particular kind of nourishment.

John Muir Fact
John Muir walked a 1000-mile trek cataloguing all the plants he found for he realised after temporally losing his sight how vital it was to enjoy nature.
 
John Muir Quote
'So extravagant is nature with her choicest treasures, spending plant beauty as spends sunshine, pouring it forth into land and sea, garden and desert. And so the beauty of lilies falls on angels and men, bears and squirrels. wolves and sheep, birds and bees...’
​John Muir Quote
‘Always fond of flowers, attracted by their external beauty and purity. Now my eyes were opened to their inner beauty.’
 
John Muir Quote
‘Indian people walk softly and hurt the landscape hardly more than the birds and squirrels, and their brush and bark huts last hardly longer than those of wood rats.’

John Muir Quote
‘Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.’

 John Muir Quote
‘Drinking this champagne water is pure pleasure, so is breathing the living air, and every movement of the limbs is pleasure, while the whole body seems to feel beauty when exposed to it....’


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