Maize Maze, Bickleigh

This is the entrance to the Amazing Maize Maze and it can be found in Bickleigh just outside of Tiverton. So it's not strictly North Devon folks, but only about half an hour in a car. It's half way been Tiverton and Exeter on the A396. Bickleigh is a tiny village centred around the bridge over the River Exe and has some lovely pubs with riverside gardens, Bickleigh Mill and a Railway Centre. Parking outside the Maize Maze is free and entrance is �4 each, but as there were five of us we got in for the discounted price of �18.

The maze is different each year and this year was in the shape of the Tivvy Bumper, an engine that travelled along the trainline that used to run next to the field. So everything inside the maze was train themed. There is no middle to find, which was a bit disappointing. What you have instead is a series of posts which you have to find, each of which holds a portion of a brass rubbing. You making a rubbing on the back of your ticket each time you find one until you have them all and they, in turn, form a wordsearch with train themed words inside. Your prize for completing this task is - wait for it - a sticker!!! Woohoo!

Along the way are boards with information about trains and the trainline, and other boards which ask questions based on said information. They offer you a choice of two answers, and direct you left or right depending on which answer you choose. This was a good idea, I thought, although it still wasn't obvious where the brass rubbing posts were even when you got the answer right. After a while my youngest one got fed up - it was a very big maze, and the older two had split up from us and gone running off on their own by then, so we gave up after finding 8 out of 9 posts. She got her sticker anyway.

We got our picnic out of the car and headed off to the picnic area. A phone call to the other two soon got them out of the maze - thank goodness for mobile phones! There is plenty to do in the picnic area: go-karts, toddlers ride-on toys (which my 13 year old enjoyed immensly), giant chess and draughts, swingball, table tennis, connect 4 and a climbing frame. We ate then played for a bit before coming home. It was nice to enjoy the sunshine.