DURING this walk I was accompanied by two very lively children who were, for the most part, engrossed with the fascinating examples of nature around them.They played with sticks and stones and grubs and other unmentionables lurking in murky waters. It was an ideal and idyllic place to bring them. After a long, hot and stuffy day spent indoors, their sense of freedom was unhindered in this large expanse of parkland.They were thrilled at spotting countless rabbits and their offspring along the way.I feel strongly that this is something children should experience most of the time, only occasionally having to venture indoors for sustenance, a bath, and maybe a little educational top-up to appease society's conventional expectations. Try to get the little explorers out this summer and see how they grow and learn from this exceptional part of our city. An urban walk to remember.Start: Sutton Park Visitors' Centre. Duration: 1 hr 20 mins1. From the centre entrance, take the path straight ahead through a small car park. Continue ahead, crossing a small access road. 2. Continue along to a clearing and a dirt lay-by on your right. This is a great place for spotting rabbits. Carry on ahead and past a gate for the Elisabeth Svenson Donkey Trust. Continue until you reach an area on your right with three dried up pools. Turn right and walk along a dirt path between two of the pools. 3. Continue along and then down some wooden steps. Cross a wooden footbridge over a brook. In a while turn left and go towards Keepers Pool. Turn right to go uphill and past the remainder of a wooden gatepost and along a dirt road. 4. Take a curving dirt path through the woods and then a wooden gateway to Blackroot Pool. Turn right, walking along the bank with the pool on the left. At the end, turn left and go uphill and then right up some wooden steps. 5. Pass Blackroot Bistro which serves great locally-resourced food and is well worth stopping for. 6. Continue past the bistro to the right, following the path round to the right to a clearing. 7. Walk towards the car park ahead and then through it and turn left, continuing along the road.
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