An actual Living Rainforest in the middle of the Berkshire countryside?! Strange, but believe it people, it's true...

This weekend I went away with my uni gang to the Cotswolds. My friend Kat (far left) moves to Singapore for an indefinite period soon and we all needed a weekend away slopping around in our pyjamas 'til noon, pootling in picturesque villages buying things we didn't really need, breaking casserole dishes we found in the cottage and eating massive pies in country pubs (accompanied by lots of wine) to make us all feel like we'd spent some quality time together before she left.

Now that the Brown Sign Way has truly overtaken my life most of our trips out were dominated by frequent shouts which resulted in screeching halts when anyone saw a brown sign. One such time was when we saw this one pointing to a 17th Century Quaker Meeting house in Nailsworth. It excited me. I was sure it would be a cool crooked little house with information about it presented in a plastic sheet on an A4 piece of paper typed in around 1989 on a typewriter and pinned to the wall with drawing pins (the very best kind of information) so on my insistence we headed up the hill and followed the brown sign. Sadly Lisa's mini with all of us in it was no match for the hill it was on, so I only got a glimpse of the house as we powered on past in 1st gear. The hill was so ridiculously steep that when we finally found ourselves up a dead end with only one way to go (down), the anxiety, sweat and tears exuding from the car was undeniable and there was no asking if I could get out and pay the meeting house a little visit. Instead I sat quietly while we slid slowly backwards with my friends bellowing "left!" "right!" "no left, left!" trying hard to avert nasty ploughage-into-dry-stone-wallage. Well here's another fine mess you've gotten us into brown signs...

After the quaker meeting house debacle I was less insistent on going brown signing. I realised it's all very well ending up in messes like this on my own but when most other people find it stressful and maybe a bit weird then perhaps I shouldn't inflict my obsession on others (or possibly just my sister). So it was only on our way back to London that I could do some brown signing proper. There were less people in the car (3) and crucially I was driving. Emily chose our destination by looking at the map and identifying any red writing within 10 miles of the M4, and what a great choice she made too: The Living Rainforest near Newbury in Berkshire. I was sold on the name alone but with the wonder that is an android phone she looked it up on the internet and made us even more excited telling us about the monkeys, free flying birds, butterflies, flesh eating plants, crocodiles and all the trappings of a proper rainforest in the English countryside. Win! I can't wait until my iPhone app appears and everyone can look up all the brilliant brown signed attractions that lie in wait for them along their journeys.

Kat leaned out the window and took the obligatory brown sign photos, she even shouted at me to slow down as I was turning right out of a blind junction so she could get the good shot. Good girl.

When we arrived I was happy to see 2 large old looking greenhouses and not the modern biome I was expecting. There's something very appealing about an oldish looking attraction, it feels more welcoming and humble for some reason. We followed the path lined with little steel frogs etched with promises that people had made about the way they wanted to live their lives (below) and I tried not to burst out crying at how sweet some of them were as we entered into a whole new world...

 

The Living Rainforest has developed over the years from an orchid nursery into the unique "real life" rainforest experience it is today, with animals and plants from across Africa, Asia and South America gathered together and living in the hot and humid glasshouses. I spoke to the centre manager who told me about the impressive education programmes they run for kids and the centre's history. Mr Keith Bromley (of Russell and Bromley shoes and philanthropist extraordinare) helped turn the orchid nursery into this impressive attraction which aims to educate people about the fragility of our natural world, promote sustainable living and highlight the importance of conserving our endangered forests. The project was ambitious and through decades of hard work and dedication The Living Rainforest opened in it's current guise in 2001 and has the honour of being the inspiration for The Eden Project in Cornwall. Mr Bromley was a man who really cared (and he was from my hometown, Bromley), so it was a good start.

We entered the rainforest, here are some pictures of the delights in store...

There are over 700 plants and animals (more plants than animals obviously) in the greenhouse-come-rainforest and it really was a great place. Children were running around excited (I like that) and there were educational tours running even on a Sunday. My favourite place had to be by the Goeldi's Monkeys who had proper cutie pootie little faces and sprang about all over the place making it hard to take a photo, here's the best I could do...

 
Away from the animals and plants in the visitor centre there was an excellent array of activities and interactive exhibits for children to do to get them really thinking about why rainforests matter, why conservation of the planet is important, and how catastrophic it can be to ignore the destruction of the rainforests and natural places of the world around us. What better way is there to help them understand something than immersing them right in so they can experience it for themselves? Inspiring children from an early age to see the bigger picture and getting them to appreciate what is happening in other parts of the world that will affect their lives must be a good thing, some of the kids we saw could be the David Attenboroughs of tomorrow, I very much hope so. Thought provoking quotes like these were all around...

I especially liked the Amish proverb "We do not inherit the land from our fathers. We are borrowing it from our children."

Here are some of the hi-tech and less hi-tech things things for visitors to do...

 

Those aren't children, they're my friends, but hey we're supposed to spend our whole lives learning aren't we?

Walking around in the humid atmosphere of The Living Rainforest, listening to the sound of the monkeys and birds, dodging massive leaves hanging across the paths and seeing all the wonderfully exotic animals and plants shot me right back to my travelling days. I travelled around Asia for a year on a tiny budget, survived on 2 meals a day sleeping in bedbug infested dorms, did frequent dirty long bus journeys and woke up in a new place nearly every morning. Despite the stresses this induced I remember loving it all; seeing new things and discovering all the different people and cultures of the world. I revelled in my stolen time away from home, knowing that when I got back I'd have to get a proper job (dull) and I met so many travellers who wanted to stay doing it forever. But I actually didn't. Experiencing all these countries that were so very different from my own only made me appreciate more how brilliant and amazing Britain is, and to be honest, the more I thought about it the more I began feeling a little bit homesick. So when we emerged out of the greenhouses and into the cold but blindingly bright spring afternoon I heaved a grateful sigh and felt even more love for England than I usually do (if that's possible).

We loved the discovery of The Living Rainforest by The Brown Sign Way. Keep up the good work all you philanthropists supporting people with passions out there, good things come from big ideas, even when they only have very humble greenhouse shaped beginnings.