I visited The Patch MK and saw exactly why it's one of the most popular family attractions around - all while clocking up over 10,000 steps

Located at Mount Mill Farm, off the A422, on the Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire border, the farm run by Joseph and Roslyn Gurney features 50 acres of land with more than 500,000 sunflowers and 50 million wildflowers.

Having recently written about The Patch being named the second best sunflower farm in the country, I decided to visit the attraction with my girlfriend.

We were in the minority of visitors as we did not have any children in tow, but we had a thoroughly enjoyable day exploring the many activities on offer and the lovely colour-filled fields of flowers.

We clocked up more than 10,000 steps during the day wandering round the fields and through the mazes, probably retracing some of those steps a few times.

The farm is only open to the public on selected dates, and this summer’s main addition is The Last Footprint, a series of art installations in the form of wild animal sculptures, placed around the fields.

These were particularly striking and fascinating to look at in the distance and up close.

The viewing platforms in the sunflower fields also provided the opportunity to get some lovely photos of the day.

One option is to get a ticket just covering the Flower Fields, but to get the full Patch experience and make a day of our visit we decided to purchase a combined ticket.

The Fun Fields feature something for everyone, and we unleashed our inner children as we enjoyed some of the activities.

The crazy golf was good fun with some weird and wonderful holes, although we did both manage holes-in-one.

The musical maze reminded us of school music lessons as we banged on drums and pinged on chimes.

We did get a bit muddled in the Lost World maze as we wandered round looking at the dinosaurs, while walking through the anti-gravity room replicated the experience sometimes felt when trying to go home after a long evening at the pub.

It was a lovely and friendly atmosphere, albeit a very hot day, with shade in rather short supply due to the nature of the set-up.

One particularly amusing moment was seeing a young boy take a tumble into the corn in the Lost World maze, leaving his family unable to contain their laughter.

As I saw him get to his feet, close to one of the dinosaur sculptures, I commented that at least he wasn’t swallowed by a dinosaur!

After a lot of walking, we purchased ice creams and found seats in the covered marquee that was doubling as the Grazing Shed, serving hot and cold food.

A staff member approached us as we sat getting some energy and resting out of the heat of the sun, and said how nice it was to see us relaxing together, and asked if she could take some photos.

These added to our memories of a great day - and I am sure that if we were to return next year, maybe with some of my girlfriend’s young siblings, it would be even bigger, better and brighter with sunflowers.

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