What is Wookey Hole? Wookey Hole, although sounding like a potentially rude reference to a certain body-part of a Star Wars character is actually a small village found in the county of Wells in Somerset, England.
The village itself is a picturesque place, with the variety of residences, pubs and hotels all styled and decorated in keeping with the area.
Within the village of Wookey Hole, there is also a visitor attraction called...
Wookey Hole! A Bit of Background on the Members of our Party It is probably useful to mention the number in our party and their ages before we go on any further.
My wife and I in our 30s, my son who was 2 when I wrote this.
My mother-in-law who was...
a little bit older than us.
My wife's niece 10 years old, and my wife's gran who's classed as an elderly member of the UK population.
So, a mixed bag of ages and physical abilities were all present in the party.
Let's continue shall we? Entrance and First Thoughts The tickets were 16 per adult, 11 for concessions and kids under 3 got in for free.
This suited my family down to the ground as my son was only 2 at the time, so a definite check mark for the entry costs to the attraction.
The ticket office also doubled as an ice-cream parlour.
This I thought from a business point of view was ingenious.
And the sheer number of flavours to choose from ensured that everyone got an ice-cream they wanted.
I went for the Sticky Toffee Pudding flavour, and I must say, it was one of the tastiest ice-cream cones I've had in a long time.
So, now our tummy's were grateful for the snack, it was time to enter the actual grounds of Wookey Hole.
Easily Accessible? There are stairs and ramp access to the park, so pushing my son in his push chair was a pleasant experience as opposed to the buggy vs stairs debacle that is all too common in other tourist attractions.
There was a small road to cross to go from the entrance area into the main park, but this was nothing to be concerned about.
Once we had crossed the road, the entire park opened out in front of us.
We decided to head straight for the caves.
It was only after we had entered into the park area that we saw the rather concerning hike ahead of us.
It was roughly 300 metres from where we stood, up a rather steep hill to get to the start of the cave tour.
We were greeted by spectacular views of the gorge surrounding us, a few wooden bridges, and a glimpse of the attractions far below that we would be visiting after the cave tour.
At the end, Lisa's gran seemed a little out of breath, but not as bad as I thought she would have been.
I was a little out of breath myself as my son isn't the lightest object to be pushing up a steep hill.
Time to See the Caves! We reached the start of where the tour began.
The tour guide was standing there, looking professional with his torch and the way he dressed.
There didn't seem to be anyone else there, the entrance to the caves was chained off.
So I asked him when the tour began.
He told us in the next 6 or 7 minutes.
So we decided to hang around.
Within around 5 minutes, there were another 4 or 5 families, some couples and a few people all waiting to get into the caves with us.
At this point, the guide turned to us and gave us a quick brief on what to expect inside the caves.
We were informed about the following things that were important for visitors to know;

• Push chairs were not allowed into the caves, if they were collapsible then we could carry them around the caves with us (or make a long trek back to the start to check the push chair in...
  no thanks!)
• The surfaces would be slippery, there would be handrails inside to aid the infirm or unsteady.
  
• At their lowest point, the "head clearance" was 4 feet from the ground.
  
• No flash photography as to not disturb the bats (my wife's niece was rather unsettled at this).
  

We had checked the pamphlet and the souvenir booklet before going to the caves, none of that information was in there, so now we had;

• An un-nerved gran who didn't fancy the idea of slipping or stooping to negotiate the cave tour.
  
• A rather frightened niece, the sheer idea of bats in the cave didn't sit well with her at all.
  
• A slightly annoyed Dad (me), knowing that if I knew the above, I would have left my son's push chair at the park entrance.
  

Nevertheless, we continued into the tour...
  The Wookey Hole Cave Tour Itself The cave guide was very knowledgeable about the caves, their formation and geological activity.
I did get the feeling that he wasn't much of a child-person, as every time there was a noise within our group, he paused with a rather stern look on his face then continued with the rest of the tour.
He spun the story of the "Wookey Witch", a local fable that dated back centuries involving a local monk from a monastery and the casting of a witch into hell though the network of caves that we were touring.
How High? The slippery floors nearly claimed my wife's gran's balance more than a few times.
The navigation of the cave network from a tall man's point of view was tricky to say the least.
As we were briefed, there were many low roof areas within the cave.
Add to this equation the carrying of my son's pushchair, let's just say it made things interesting.
At the latter end of the network were a series of catwalks suspected within the walls of the caves, reaching heights of 150 feet in places.
As both my mother in law and myself both suffered from acrophbia (fear of heights), it would have been rather useful to know about this part of the tour before it was sprung on us in the first place.
I handled myself rather well I thought, I even looked down through the catwalk to see how high we actually were.
The answer was very high indeed.
But for some odd reason, I wasn't unnerved by this.
Perhaps because I was holding my son's hand throughout the tour was reminding me of being a Dad, so it was my duty to be brave and fearless...
It seemed to work too! End of the Cave Tour Eventually we reached the end of the cave tour, were back out into the glorious sunshine and a collection plate for tipping the guide.
I left my tip and shook his hand, thanking him for an enjoyable and informative tour.
So far, we were enjoying our day out.
The caves were interesting if a little slippery.
The weather was great, and we had only driven 15 miles to get there from our holiday home.
In part two of my Wookey Hole review, I will comment on the rest of the attractions and offer you my frank and honest overall opinion of the place as a tourist destination.