All Five Senses, based in Stromness on Orkney (01856 851 209, www.allfivesenses.com), runs activities tailormade to your group or family, which range from exploring the islands, perhaps hearing the music of a neolithic clay drum in a burial chamber by candlelight or meeting local craftspeople, to learning survival skills.

Malcolm Handoll and his wife Rachel also run Independence Outdoors courses from pound;50 for a day to pound;130 for a two-day course that includes an overnight camp on Hoy. You learn how to choose wild foods and find drinking water. All equipment is provided. For less wild camping nearby, the three-star Point of Ness Caravan and Camping site (0845 2255121, www.visitorkney.com) has dramatic views over the hills of Hoy and surrounding islands.

Go for a day

There is a special magic about seeing the real place that inspired a children’s classic. Ashdown Forest in East Sussex is home to the 100 Aker Wood where Christopher Robin, Winnie the Pooh and all their friends had so many adventures. A new exhibition which opened last week, Winnie the Pooh in the Landscape, at the Ashdown Forest Centre, celebrates the area first sketched by EH Shepard, and shows how much has stayed the same. You can get there by public transport and the centre makes a good starting point for a walk through the woods to find Eeyore’s Sad and Gloomy Place, Pooh Bridge (bring your own Pooh sticks) and Pooh Corner. (Ashdown Forest Centre, Wych Cross, Forest Row, East Sussex, RH18 5JP, 01342 823 583, www.ashdownforest.org.) Go festive

Home in the 1960s to the mother of all rock festivals, the Isle of Wight has not stopped having them since, devising some pretty unusual events along the way. In 1969, islander Colin Boswell, then 17, found himself serving sweetcorn to Bob Dylan. Now he’s owner of the Garlic Farm and one of the moving spirits behind the island’s annual Garlic Festival (August 19-20) at Newchurch. Here you will find more than 250 stallholders selling Transylvanian pickles and vampire relishes, garlic ice-cream, garlic fudge, garlic beer and, of course, garlic bread. Since it’s on the Isle of Wight there will be music, too. Noddy Holder promises to sing his Garlic Festival song, and there is a whole slew of other attractions. (01983 863 566, www.garlic-festival.co.uk.)