Nearby Nature - Whisby
- Hannah Riley
- Jan 1, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 21, 2023
Look, I'm going to be biased here; I love spending time on the farm and it's not very often that I'll be sat in the "office" at the campsite and start thinking about what else there is to do. I'm also very aware that there will be some folks looking at the idea of green camping and wondering "...what else?!", so this blog is mostly going to be about things you can do during your stay at Oakwell Farm.
Hey, you're planning on staying at a green campsite, right? So you like nature then?
Well, good news guys! If there's one thing we have around here, it's a lot of nature. If you don't fancy straying super far away, there's a few options, but today I'm going to start with one that has the bonus of being fairly close to Lincoln, just in case you need a break from the countryside.
Whisby Nature Park
A 20 minute drive down some pretty back roads (or some bog standard A roads, depending on how Google is feeling) will have you on the doorstep of a beautiful little nature reserve.
Whisby Nature Park was historically a sand and gravel quarry, however through a lot of hard graft it has become a firm favourite for wildlife and locals alike. The park opened in 1989, and although mature and grown in, there's always something new in the works.
On busy days, you'll find the car park packed - the first warning signs of this are cars parking on the road leading up to the nature park. We were hoping to go on New Year's Day, turned up to an extremely busy park, and ended up voting to go somewhere slightly more off the beaten track - more on that one on a different blog post. I thought this was maybe just related to bank holidays and such, but further attempts on not-bank-holidays are making me second guess this. I'd recommend weekdays, or a backup plan such as Hartsholme Park.
Another thing to note is that there is a £2.50 charge for parking, and the machines currently only take cash - this is arguably a small price to pay for a park absolutely teeming with wildlife.
If you want a park with facilities, the Natural World Centre has you covered with accessible toilets, café, shop, and kids indoor/outdoor adventure play. It has opening hours listed on the Lincs Wildlife Trust website, but also has a separate website that posts planned events and activities.
Speaking of accessibility, the vast majority of trails are level and hard surfaced, and a variety of powered scooters and manual wheelchairs are available to hire at the Natural World Centre. The Lincs Wildlife Trust website has a PDF to download about accessibility, which provides more information about the bird hides and trails as part of the Countryside For All initiative, detailing the width of entrances and conditions of the trails around Grebe Lake.
Past the visitor's centre, the first thing you're greeted with is a structure called The Barn. It's a large hide that's chock full of information about the birds you might see through the windows, the vast majority of which are water fowl out on the breath-taking Thorpe Lake. There's a small island not too far away from The Barn which tends to host the majority of the larger birds; I'm a terrible bird watcher, so please don't ask me which birds.
Thankfully, if you do want to find out more about the birds, volunteers are on hand most Sundays and Mondays to impart their knowledge upon eager ears.
Hang a right at The Barn, and you'll find a small bird hide. It faces a narrow plot of land that's speckled with an array of bird feeders, and surrounded by some very dense hedgerow. Should you stand in the bird hide for any amount of time, you'll witness a tonne of tits. And probably some sparrows. And yes, all of the photos you try to take will end up being photos of bird feeders, maybe with a blur of feathers in mid air if you're lucky, unless you have a proper fancy camera. Still, it's wonderful to watch these little chaps dart between feeders and hedges, nattering away at each other.
Dogs are also welcome visitors, as proven by the dog toilet across from The Barn. You might be wondering what a dog toilet is, but it's simple. I don't know about effective. It's a fenced in sand pit with a very big sign on the gate letting you know this is a bad place to let your kids play. Out on the trails, it's requested that dogs are kept on a short lead, however there's an off lead area around Thorpe Lake just in case you want to stress test your dog's recall.
The map for the reserve can be found and downloaded from the Lincs Wildlife Trust Website, and is handy to keep on your phone. I'm almost 100% certain there are trails and lakes here I haven't seen, and I've spent a fair few hours wandering around each time.
There are livestock that roam and graze the marsh at various points in the year, namely Shetland cattle, which are a small breed of cow. A small cow is still bigger than you think, unless you spend a lot of time around cows. They are responsible for keeping the grass in check and fertilising the ground. Best take the big boots.
The nature park is open all year round, however as facilities are in the Natural World Centre, it's worth taking note of opening times to make sure you don't end up taking a wild pee next to a bird hide. I mention this for no reason at all.
Whilst planning is not essential and you can mostly turn up whenever and still have a good time, I highly recommend setting aside a good few hours to soak up this little gem. There's plenty of trails to stretch the legs on, but there's also some very scenic areas to just sit down and enjoy everything going on around you. Also, the hot chocolates at the café are darn good.
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