Let's join Prickles the Hedgehog and his dad on a wonderful adventure across the country! These nature bedtime stories for kids will have you dreaming of endless fields and fluffy clouds.
The little hedgehogs are on a mission to find the secret worlds hidden in the hedges that criss-cross the countryside. You'll never guess the things they find! Hit follow to get these nature bedtime stories for kids saved straight to your library.
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Narrator: Abbe Opher
Author: Jane Thomas
Story Themes: England, Hedgerows, Animals, Adventure, Nature Bedtime Stories For Kids
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About Koala Moon 🐨🌕
Koala Moon is the beloved kids podcast that has become a treasured part of bedtime for families around the world. With over 50 million listens, it’s more than just a show, it’s a nightly ritual filled with wonder, calm, and connection.
Each week, host Abbe Opher gently guides listeners through a new bedtime story, combining soothing narration, original storytelling, and tranquil soundscapes that support healthy sleep routines. These aren’t ordinary kids bedtime stories; they're immersive journeys into a cozy world of imagination, designed to help little ones relax, unwind, and fall asleep peacefully.
Inside Sleepy Forest and beyond, you’ll meet familiar friends like Koko the Koala, his adventurous sister Kira, the time-traveling pups Hector and Sunny, and many more. Whether it’s a short tale for busy evenings or a longer weekend wind-down, every episode is crafted to soothe and delight. And with gentle themes woven from nature, kindness, and curiosity, there’s always something new to spark joy. That’s why our bedtime stories for kids continue to be loved by families who rely on them for calm, connection, and consistent bedtime routines.
All of our bedtime stories for kids are written in-house and narrated with love, helping turn bedtime into something families look forward to. You’ll find kids sleep stories that inspire imagination and calm, while also supporting emotional growth and rest.
Need help settling an energetic child? Or looking for a bedtime story that the whole family can enjoy together? Koala Moon delivers a weekly mix of cozy tales, quiet adventure, and familiar characters that make falling asleep feel easy. It’s no wonder so many parents call it their favorite kids podcast for evening calm.
With its unique blend of storytelling and mindfulness, Koala Moon brings a sense of peace into your home, one tale at a time. Every episode includes moments of quiet reflection and even the occasional sleep meditation for kids, gently encouraging little minds to slow down.
So, curl up with a story, snuggle in tight, and join Koko and friends under the magical Koala Moon. These kids bedtime stories are more than entertainment, they’re a soft landing at the end of every day. Sleep tight, and sweet dreams. 🌙
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00:00:10
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to Koala Moon, a podcast of
00:00:14
Speaker 1: original children's bedtime stories and meditations designed to make bedtime
00:00:20
Speaker 1: and dream. Welcome new Coco Club crew today, we're welcoming
00:00:25
Speaker 1: you Larissa and You're Handre from Auckland, Ishaany from Toronto,
00:00:30
Speaker 1: Yammy from Sydney, Luna and Harvey and Jasper and Theo
00:00:35
Speaker 1: from Tasmania. I so appreciate you and your families joining
00:00:39
Speaker 1: up and supporting us to make the show better and better.
00:00:42
Speaker 1: Now you've got loads of bonus stories to catch up on,
00:00:45
Speaker 1: as well as the complete ad free experience. Well. Also,
00:00:49
Speaker 1: here's a special birthday shout out going out to Coasty
00:00:52
Speaker 1: who listens with his sister Zoe from South Carolina. Have
00:00:56
Speaker 1: a wonderful birthday, Coasty. Now, then this story is extremely
00:01:02
Speaker 1: relaxing and RESTful, but it is chock a block full
00:01:05
Speaker 1: of interesting facts, so it might need a double listen.
00:01:08
Speaker 1: Prickles is our guide. Remember him, Koco's great friend and
00:01:12
Speaker 1: courageous little hedgehog. He's super inquisitive as well as brave
00:01:17
Speaker 1: and is about to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.
00:01:21
Speaker 1: If you've ever traveled around the British countryside, you'll be
00:01:25
Speaker 1: aware that some of the views are epic and duw
00:01:28
Speaker 1: droppingly beautiful. You may also be aware that there is
00:01:32
Speaker 1: one major obstacle that can frustrate a good sight seeing
00:01:35
Speaker 1: excursion around the country lanes, especially in late summer. And
00:01:40
Speaker 1: what is that obstacle? A hedge. They line all the
00:01:44
Speaker 1: lanes and divide the fields. The thing is, whilst they
00:01:48
Speaker 1: may get in the way of seeing very far, they
00:01:51
Speaker 1: are a very important home to a diverse variety of wildlife.
00:01:56
Speaker 1: They are brimming with life in fact, and tonight, with
00:01:59
Speaker 1: the help of our our spiky little friend, we're going
00:02:01
Speaker 1: to investigate. So get ready to rest and switch on
00:02:06
Speaker 1: your imagination. Perhaps close your eyes or just let your
00:02:11
Speaker 1: gaze softly rest on something. Listen to your breathing as
00:02:17
Speaker 1: you take a breath in through your nose and then
00:02:20
Speaker 1: let it out. Breathe softly for a few moments, and
00:02:26
Speaker 1: adjust yourself in bed so you are really comfy. Lovely,
00:02:34
Speaker 1: you continue to relax and just breathe in and out gently,
00:02:39
Speaker 1: and I'll get started. This is Prickles Boards the Hedgerow
00:02:44
Speaker 1: Express by Jane Thomas. Have you ever heard a rustle
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Speaker 1: within a hedge and wondered what little creature is scurrying
00:02:57
Speaker 1: around inside it. There are a whole worlds hidden in
00:03:01
Speaker 1: the hedges in our towns and countrysides. It is said
00:03:04
Speaker 1: that if you were to take all of England's hedges
00:03:08
Speaker 1: and place them end to end, they would wrap around
00:03:11
Speaker 1: the world ten times over. That's hundreds of thousands of
00:03:16
Speaker 1: miles of hedgerows, each one packed with flowers and shrubs,
00:03:21
Speaker 1: beetles and bugs, birds, nests and dens, and burrows and hideaways.
00:03:29
Speaker 1: When Prickles the hedgehog found this out, which was sort
00:03:32
Speaker 1: of by accident, one day, when he overheard his dad
00:03:35
Speaker 1: talking with their neighbor, mister Burrow, he thought that was
00:03:39
Speaker 1: one of the most wonderful things he'd ever heard. Prickles
00:03:44
Speaker 1: had always loved a hedgerow. There where he found purple
00:03:48
Speaker 1: and plump blackberries, and where he helped his mother reach
00:03:52
Speaker 1: for the soft white sprays of elderflower, and where he
00:03:56
Speaker 1: climbed inside and found long loops of sweet scented honeysuckle
00:04:01
Speaker 1: that his sister made into headdresses and garlands. Also, he
00:04:07
Speaker 1: shared half his name with hedgerows, being a hedgehog. The
00:04:12
Speaker 1: conversation he'd heard between his father and mister Burrow stuck
00:04:16
Speaker 1: firmly in his mind. Prickles found his mind drifting off
00:04:21
Speaker 1: in classes at school and in the middle of discussions
00:04:25
Speaker 1: at the dinner table, and even though his eyes would
00:04:28
Speaker 1: move down the pages of a book, he would realize
00:04:31
Speaker 1: that he had no idea what had been written at all,
00:04:35
Speaker 1: and have to start all over again. His mind was
00:04:39
Speaker 1: completely and utterly occupied by hedges and the worlds within,
00:04:45
Speaker 1: and so Prickles decided to make a plan. He went
00:04:50
Speaker 1: through the bookshelves and found what he was after, the
00:04:54
Speaker 1: happy hedgehog camper, pulling it down along with a pile
00:04:58
Speaker 1: of maps for all of England and Scotland and Wales,
00:05:03
Speaker 1: and carried them to his bedroom. He spread out the maps,
00:05:07
Speaker 1: covering almost the entire floor with them, and then sat
00:05:11
Speaker 1: down right in the middle, on top of where a
00:05:13
Speaker 1: place called West Yorkshire nestled against East Yorkshire, where all
00:05:18
Speaker 1: the lines showed him it was very hilly indeed. Over
00:05:24
Speaker 1: the next few weeks he planned a route from the
00:05:27
Speaker 1: far southern corner of England, a wild looking place called
00:05:31
Speaker 1: Land's End, which seemed very appropriate all the way to
00:05:36
Speaker 1: the furthest corners of Scotland in the north, the Headland
00:05:41
Speaker 1: at the top of the country was called dunit Head,
00:05:44
Speaker 1: which made Prickles chuckle a little as he put together
00:05:47
Speaker 1: his plan. He would travel the entire length of the country,
00:05:52
Speaker 1: all the way from Land's End to dunit Head and
00:05:55
Speaker 1: be able to say when he reached the end dune it.
00:05:59
Speaker 1: In fact, Prickles found this so funny, and he laughed
00:06:03
Speaker 1: so loudly that his father came into his bedroom to
00:06:06
Speaker 1: see what was going on in there. His father was
00:06:10
Speaker 1: just about to open his mouth to speak when the
00:06:13
Speaker 1: words stopped half way along his tongue. He looked at
00:06:17
Speaker 1: the mats, now covered in bits of string, and he
00:06:21
Speaker 1: looked at pins that had been stuck in all the way,
00:06:25
Speaker 1: And he looked at Prickles, sat squarely in the middle,
00:06:29
Speaker 1: still shaking with laughter. And finally he looked at the
00:06:34
Speaker 1: title of the book Prickles held in his hands. And
00:06:38
Speaker 1: that is why Prickles and his dad ended up on
00:06:42
Speaker 1: a train in England a few days later, each carrying
00:06:46
Speaker 1: a backpack filled with useful bits and pieces like sleeping
00:06:50
Speaker 1: bags and roll mats and head torches and Wellington boots,
00:06:56
Speaker 1: and headed all the way to Land's End. They were
00:07:01
Speaker 1: off on an expedition to visit as many hedgerows as
00:07:05
Speaker 1: possible and see the worlds inside. Prickles stared out of
00:07:11
Speaker 1: the train window and watched as the world rushed by.
00:07:16
Speaker 1: They rattled over bridges and alongside rivers and next to
00:07:21
Speaker 1: the ocean, up steep hills and down even steeper ones,
00:07:28
Speaker 1: and threw tunnels into villages and towns. Hardly anyone else
00:07:33
Speaker 1: went all the way to the far corner of the country,
00:07:37
Speaker 1: and in fact it was just Prickles and his dad
00:07:40
Speaker 1: who climbed down. At the last station, they were left
00:07:44
Speaker 1: quite alone on the platform. Prickles picked up the first
00:07:49
Speaker 1: map they would use and turned it around four or
00:07:52
Speaker 1: five times before he finally worked out which was the
00:07:56
Speaker 1: right way up. He showed his dad their first campsite
00:08:00
Speaker 1: for the night. As they left the station, they saw
00:08:05
Speaker 1: a small wooden sign, so low to the ground that
00:08:09
Speaker 1: no people would ever see it, but the perfect height
00:08:12
Speaker 1: for animals such as hedgehogs. It showed the way to
00:08:16
Speaker 1: their first stop, Dormice Delight Dormitories a few miles away.
00:08:22
Speaker 1: There was a picture of an acorn carved into the
00:08:25
Speaker 1: wooden sign, and Prickles and his dad followed the acorn
00:08:29
Speaker 1: pictures across fields and styles, and ditches and streams, until
00:08:35
Speaker 1: they finally arrived at the perfect point on the hedgerow.
00:08:40
Speaker 1: Prickles pushed his way through the hawthorn entrance and his
00:08:44
Speaker 1: eyes opened wide. Inside the hedgerow was all but hollowed out.
00:08:52
Speaker 1: Fireflies sat on every branch and twig, so it was
00:08:56
Speaker 1: as if they'd stumbled into a golden ball of light.
00:09:01
Speaker 1: A dormouse sitting on a particularly large acorn beckoned them over,
00:09:06
Speaker 1: welcoming them to dormice Delight and asking to see their booking.
00:09:11
Speaker 1: Prickles rummaged in his bag for the right piece of
00:09:15
Speaker 1: paper showing they had reservations for two bunk beds for
00:09:18
Speaker 1: the night, and the dormouse pointed to a tunnel that
00:09:22
Speaker 1: weaved its way among the branches of the hedgerow. They
00:09:26
Speaker 1: had just finished unrolling their sleeping bags and plumping up
00:09:31
Speaker 1: their pillows when a stoat poked his head into the
00:09:34
Speaker 1: chamber and invited Prickles and his dad to dinner. And
00:09:38
Speaker 1: so they followed the stoat deeper and deeper into the
00:09:42
Speaker 1: hedgerow until they emerged into the vast dining hall. A
00:09:47
Speaker 1: menu appeared, and Prickles ran his eyes down the list,
00:09:52
Speaker 1: pausing at star gazy pie and deciding that sounded like
00:09:57
Speaker 1: a little slice of magic. His dad ordered a Cornish pasty,
00:10:02
Speaker 1: showing Prickles how the pastry was folded over and curled
00:10:06
Speaker 1: and crimped to make a big hunk of a handle
00:10:09
Speaker 1: on the side. The Cornish miners used to eat these,
00:10:13
Speaker 1: you see, he explained to his son. There would be
00:10:17
Speaker 1: meat and vege at one end of the pasti, and
00:10:20
Speaker 1: then something like apple and BlackBerry at the other end,
00:10:24
Speaker 1: so your dinner and dessert in one. And then as
00:10:29
Speaker 1: he finished eating, he took the last bit of pastry
00:10:32
Speaker 1: and put it down on his plate. This bit you
00:10:36
Speaker 1: don't eat. The miner's hands would be felthy, so they
00:10:40
Speaker 1: left that last bit Alone's at that clover, Prickles carefully
00:10:45
Speaker 1: noted everything about the pasty and his diary that evening,
00:10:49
Speaker 1: his large looping letters, also holding reminders of stargaisy pie
00:10:55
Speaker 1: and scones with strawberry jam and generous dollops of yellow cream.
00:11:02
Speaker 1: It's surprising how quickly the hedgerows came to be like home.
00:11:07
Speaker 1: They were so thick and strong that even when the
00:11:10
Speaker 1: wind blew with all its strength, and rain poured from
00:11:14
Speaker 1: the sky, Prickles was completely snug inside. On the days
00:11:21
Speaker 1: when the sun threw down its warmth, the hedgerows were
00:11:24
Speaker 1: cool and calm. Prickles particularly loved the hedgerows that came
00:11:31
Speaker 1: with little information boards showing how old they were and
00:11:35
Speaker 1: why they'd been grown in the first place. Near a
00:11:39
Speaker 1: place called Stratford were hedgerows that had been there since
00:11:43
Speaker 1: the days of William Shakespeare, and Prickles and his dad
00:11:47
Speaker 1: followed the signs carefully to find a theater buried deep
00:11:51
Speaker 1: in the countryside. The theater was lit by a soft
00:11:56
Speaker 1: green moss that glowed in the dark, and Prickles sat
00:12:01
Speaker 1: in awe as a group of field mice put on
00:12:04
Speaker 1: a play called The Tempest, all about a shipwreck on
00:12:09
Speaker 1: a magical island, where spirits danced and a magician cast
00:12:14
Speaker 1: magnificent spells. Prickles held his breath and watched in wonder.
00:12:22
Speaker 1: Some of the bushes are so old they remember the
00:12:26
Speaker 1: first time the plays were put on, whispered as Stoat,
00:12:30
Speaker 1: and the bushes seemed to rustle around him, as if
00:12:34
Speaker 1: to say, it was indeed true. That's over four hundred
00:12:40
Speaker 1: years ago, isn't it amazing? And here we are still
00:12:47
Speaker 1: putting on those same plays. It's wonderful, whispered back Prickles,
00:12:54
Speaker 1: wondering for a moment if anything he wrote in his
00:12:57
Speaker 1: diaries might be important enough to be remembered in four
00:13:01
Speaker 1: hundred years time. He had planned his route carefully to
00:13:07
Speaker 1: visit some of the finest hedgerows in the country, which
00:13:11
Speaker 1: means they had to head to a place called Cambridgeshire,
00:13:15
Speaker 1: to what is called Judith's Hedge, the oldest hedge in
00:13:19
Speaker 1: the whole country. This hedgerow has been a home to
00:13:25
Speaker 1: thousands of creatures since it was created over nine hundred
00:13:30
Speaker 1: years ago. It is older than Windsor Castle, where the
00:13:34
Speaker 1: Queens and Kings of England have lived for generations, older
00:13:40
Speaker 1: than most of the churches and cathedrals, older than the
00:13:45
Speaker 1: castles that still stand on the highest peaks, older than
00:13:50
Speaker 1: the ancient stone barns that stand in the fields that
00:13:54
Speaker 1: are marked out by the endless lines of hedgerows. Judith's
00:13:59
Speaker 1: Hedge was a special place, and Prickles felt that. As
00:14:04
Speaker 1: soon as he pushed past the wild roses that hung
00:14:08
Speaker 1: around the entrance to the butterfly bed and breakfast where
00:14:11
Speaker 1: he and his dad would stay that night, a gate
00:14:16
Speaker 1: keeper butterfly orange wings with a perfect brown fringe, checked
00:14:21
Speaker 1: their booking, and a holly blue butterfly fluttered ahead along
00:14:26
Speaker 1: the corridors to show them to their room. Hammocks woven
00:14:32
Speaker 1: from leaves hung from the strongest spider webs. Glow worms
00:14:38
Speaker 1: wrapped themselves around thick hawthorn stems and lit the way.
00:14:44
Speaker 1: Prickles followed voices deep in the hedgerow and emerged into
00:14:49
Speaker 1: a huge hall where moles sat alongside voles, and rabbits
00:14:55
Speaker 1: perched next to hares, and all would turn towards the front,
00:15:01
Speaker 1: where an elderly frog wearing a sweeping black cloak and
00:15:06
Speaker 1: a square, flat black hat was giving a lecture ill find.
00:15:13
Speaker 1: The frog was saying that hedgerows are invaluable to animals
00:15:18
Speaker 1: who use them as corridors of safety, ancient passages where
00:15:24
Speaker 1: they can pass unseen by the outside world. The hederow
00:15:29
Speaker 1: from the outside may seem dull and bland, a mass
00:15:36
Speaker 1: of green and brown all tangled together, but peer closer
00:15:43
Speaker 1: and the truth twinkled bright and bald. Prickles found a
00:15:49
Speaker 1: spare seat and settled into it, captivated by the frog,
00:15:54
Speaker 1: who walked back and forth across a small stage with
00:15:58
Speaker 1: his hands behind his back, talking to the room, and
00:16:02
Speaker 1: yet also seeming to talk to himself at the same time.
00:16:08
Speaker 1: He was wrapped up in his words, building up to
00:16:12
Speaker 1: a grand finale. All the creatures leaned forwards in their seats,
00:16:18
Speaker 1: waiting in the growing silence to hear what else the
00:16:23
Speaker 1: frog could tell them. These worlds within have been a
00:16:28
Speaker 1: saving grace of wildlife for hundreds of years. The animals nodded.
00:16:36
Speaker 1: These worlds within each unique are surely, the frog paused
00:16:45
Speaker 1: here for dramatic effect, looking up and sweeping his eyes
00:16:49
Speaker 1: across the animals are surely some of the most magical
00:16:56
Speaker 1: on earth. The wisdom and sanctuary of the hedgerows are unequaled.
00:17:04
Speaker 1: Whereever you are, whatever happens, Nature will be there to
00:17:11
Speaker 1: save and support you. Remember that, my fellow creatures, and
00:17:18
Speaker 1: you will always find hope and happiness. Prickles felt his
00:17:25
Speaker 1: spines rise up a little, the same way the hares
00:17:29
Speaker 1: stand up on a person's arm when they are in
00:17:31
Speaker 1: the presence of something or someone truly extraordinary. A rabbit
00:17:38
Speaker 1: next to him whispered, he lectures at Cambridge University, Isn't
00:17:44
Speaker 1: that something? And Prickles felt terribly important. Indeed in the
00:17:50
Speaker 1: presence of a frog who had come to speak that
00:17:53
Speaker 1: evening from one of the oldest, most prestigious universities in
00:17:58
Speaker 1: all the world. The next stop on the tour of
00:18:03
Speaker 1: hedgerows was in a place called Yorkshire, the bit where
00:18:08
Speaker 1: Prickles had parked his bottom when he'd spread the maps
00:18:12
Speaker 1: across his bedroom floor all those weeks ago. Her badger
00:18:18
Speaker 1: welcomed him to the sleepy stoat and inn, where all
00:18:22
Speaker 1: the creatures wore flat caps and seemed to drink copious
00:18:27
Speaker 1: amounts of tea. Welcome to God's own country, said the badger,
00:18:33
Speaker 1: smiling proudly as he pointed out the features of the hedgerow.
00:18:38
Speaker 1: The beds were made of the thick, springy heathers that
00:18:42
Speaker 1: poured across the countryside in waves of rippling purple. The
00:18:48
Speaker 1: entrance way was dense with holly, the bright shiny dark
00:18:54
Speaker 1: green leaves and bright shiny, dark red berries, serving as
00:19:00
Speaker 1: both a beautiful doorway and excellent security system. In one
00:19:07
Speaker 1: that evening, Prickles ate his first Yorkshire pudding, a huge
00:19:13
Speaker 1: puff of pastry that had been baked into a bowl
00:19:17
Speaker 1: and filled with rich, thick gravy. In each hedgerow he
00:19:24
Speaker 1: noticed the voices of the animals changed. There might be
00:19:30
Speaker 1: only a few miles between their happy hedgehog camp sites,
00:19:36
Speaker 1: but the accents would be different, and the food would
00:19:39
Speaker 1: be different, and the flowers and trees and bushes that
00:19:45
Speaker 1: made up the hedgerows would be different. Prickles carefully wrote
00:19:51
Speaker 1: everything in his diary, those large looping letters wandering across
00:19:57
Speaker 1: page after page. All that he saw and heard, noted
00:20:04
Speaker 1: down so he might never forget. But he knew that
00:20:11
Speaker 1: he would never forget the last few weeks of hedgerows
00:20:16
Speaker 1: that they saw, Those that rambled across the Scottish Highlands
00:20:22
Speaker 1: were like no other and filled with sights and sounds
00:20:27
Speaker 1: that would always be with him. Nessi's Nest was a
00:20:32
Speaker 1: particularly wonderful camp site, named, of course, after the giant
00:20:37
Speaker 1: creature that lives in nearby Loch Ness. The sound of
00:20:43
Speaker 1: the bagpipes reached Prickles long before they entered the hedgerow,
00:20:49
Speaker 1: and he smiled broadly at the red squirrel who greeted him.
00:20:55
Speaker 1: The squirrel introduced himself as Callum and proudly posed in
00:21:00
Speaker 1: his kilt red tartan squares bright against the green of
00:21:05
Speaker 1: the hedgerow. Prickles's bed for the night was a thick
00:21:11
Speaker 1: mattress of dark green moss, warm and inviting, but he
00:21:17
Speaker 1: couldn't resist. Following the sound of the music, a huge
00:21:23
Speaker 1: hall was cut out into the middle of the hedgerow
00:21:27
Speaker 1: and high on a branch, another squirrel played the bagpipes.
00:21:32
Speaker 1: He squeezed the bag and blew into the mouthpiece, and
00:21:36
Speaker 1: the notes soared and filled the air with music. A
00:21:43
Speaker 1: stoat sat nearby with a fiddle, the bow speeding wildly
00:21:48
Speaker 1: back and forth across the strings. Around the edge of
00:21:54
Speaker 1: a makeshift dance floor, creatures clapped their hands and stamped
00:21:59
Speaker 1: their feet, and in the middle others swirled and twirled
00:22:05
Speaker 1: and danced faster and faster. As the music picked up pace,
00:22:12
Speaker 1: Prickles and his dad joined in, shouting and cheering along
00:22:18
Speaker 1: with the others, filling the hedgerow with life and laughter.
00:22:25
Speaker 1: Prickles thought back to the words of the frog, all
00:22:29
Speaker 1: the way back in Cambridge, how the hedgerows are twinkling
00:22:33
Speaker 1: with magic, And he threw back his head and cheered
00:22:38
Speaker 1: with delight as his dad grabbed his hands and swung
00:22:41
Speaker 1: him faster and faster in a circle. The final days
00:22:47
Speaker 1: of their tour of the hedgerows were quiet as Prickles
00:22:52
Speaker 1: thought through everything he had seen on his journey. His
00:22:57
Speaker 1: legs were so tired he could well believe he had
00:23:02
Speaker 1: walked around the world ten times, even though if truth
00:23:07
Speaker 1: be told, they had taken many trains and buses to
00:23:12
Speaker 1: help them along their way. It would take, he decided,
00:23:18
Speaker 1: an entire lifetime to know all the different hedgerows and
00:23:23
Speaker 1: see everything that was hidden inside. He'd loved each and
00:23:29
Speaker 1: every moment of the trip, and he dragged his feet
00:23:34
Speaker 1: a little on those last days, not wanting it to
00:23:38
Speaker 1: come to an end, but knowing that it must done.
00:23:44
Speaker 1: It Head was the last stop. It was a cold
00:23:48
Speaker 1: and windy day, with the wind whipping its way all
00:23:53
Speaker 1: the way from Norway, with the feeling of snow and
00:23:58
Speaker 1: ice behind it. Prickles poured on his warmest coat and
00:24:04
Speaker 1: his thickest socks and buried his feet into his Wellington boots,
00:24:11
Speaker 1: bending himself into the wind and pushing forwards with each step.
00:24:19
Speaker 1: His legs were more and more tired. His dad walked
00:24:25
Speaker 1: alongside him, distracting him by pointing out the thick yellow gorse,
00:24:33
Speaker 1: or the patches of purple heather, or the birds racing
00:24:39
Speaker 1: through the sky high above. Prickles imagined the final stop,
00:24:48
Speaker 1: the Highland Hangout campsite, in the final headgerow they would see.
00:24:57
Speaker 1: Scotland had perhaps been the wild this and most wonderful
00:25:02
Speaker 1: of the places he had seen. There weren't as many
00:25:06
Speaker 1: hedgerows here, nowhere near as many as when they had
00:25:12
Speaker 1: started all the way down in Cornwall, where they crisscrossed
00:25:18
Speaker 1: and climbed over every corner of the countryside. It was
00:25:25
Speaker 1: late in the evening when they finally approached the headland,
00:25:31
Speaker 1: and as Prickles stood there, the wind rushing around him,
00:25:38
Speaker 1: he whispered to himself, done it, and just about found
00:25:45
Speaker 1: the energy for a little smile. The Highland Hangout was
00:25:51
Speaker 1: a particularly beautiful hedgerow, or perhaps anywhere would have seemed
00:25:59
Speaker 1: to particular ularly beautiful that evening. Since Prickles was so very,
00:26:07
Speaker 1: very tired, he yawned and stretched his way through the evening,
00:26:17
Speaker 1: and in the morning his father wrapped him in a
00:26:21
Speaker 1: blanket and carried him, still fast asleep, to the magical
00:26:28
Speaker 1: train that would whisk them back to sleepy forest. The
00:26:35
Speaker 1: train raced and rattled its way through the counties, rushing
00:26:43
Speaker 1: past headerows filled with memories and magic, and Prickles slept
00:26:51
Speaker 1: soundly beneath his tartan rug, dreaming of all the things
00:26:59
Speaker 1: he had seen and the world he now knew.