‘We tackled the full Cambridge Standing Tall giraffe trail in six hours’
Thousands of people have already enjoyed the sight of Cambridge Standing Tall – and a few giraffe fans completed the entire trail of sculptures around the city within days of it opening.
Launched on March 21, the trail features 31 large sculptures decorated by artists and 60 ‘Mini Gs’ created by local schools and community groups.
The trail, supported by the Cambridge Independent, will benefit the charity Break, which supports care leavers and is in place for 10 weeks until June 2.
But some eager trail lovers saw no need to wait that long.
Emma Sewell, fiance Ernie and their five-month-old son Zac completed the trail in six hours.
“My favourite animal is giraffes so we were very excited to take part in the trail,” Emma told the Cambridge Independent. “Funnily enough Ernie is from Croydon where the giraffes featured last summer. As I was heavily pregnant, I was unable to take part then. We have been waiting for the Cambridge Standing Tall to come for quite some time now.
“We are both runners – it’s how we met – but I’ve not been back up to running since having Zac, so walking was the best solution to start again. And what better way than to start collecting the miles with the giraffe trail? We walked nearly 10 miles and it took us about six hours to complete it all. Zac slept through most of it in his giraffe print pushchair, but it was great fun as one of our first family adventures!”
Beate Dithmer, who lives in Bristol, completed all 31 giraffes by herself.
She said: “I’ve done lots of these trails in the past few years. I was looking at the calendar and the weather and there’s an Elmer [the Patchwork Elephant] trail in Eastbourne, so I booked the coach and the train to Eastbourne and then took the train up to Cambridge, and then the train back here.”
Beate’s favourite giraffe sculpture was “the one with the daffodil head”, and she used the Cambridge Standing Tall app to navigate.
“I did the Cows about Cambridge a couple of years ago as well,” she noted. “It’s quite easy with the app because you can see where you are and where they are. I really enjoyed it. If you’re visiting Cambridge, it shows you different places you probably wouldn't go to normally. It gets you out and about and does something for charity. I always make sure I give something to the charity that’s doing the trail.”
Beate plans more trails this week.
“I'm off to Manchester on Wednesday – there’s a trail of mosaics,” she said, “and then there's something in York – the Snooks, I believe they’re called, some creature holding up a book – and then I’m going to Tatton Park on Friday, which has some Shaun the Sheep. Then I’m going back home – and then I’m going back to work!”
Break has organised Cambridge Standing Tall together with delivery partners Wild in Art and trail partners Cambridge BID and Alan Boswell. After the trail ends, the sculptures will be auctioned off to raise money for the charity. The Cambridge Standing Tall app is available on iOS and Android for £1.99, which benefits Break.
See our pictures special on how the giraffes were herded into place amid the city traffic and see our complete guide to enjoying the trail.
Additional reporting: Adrian Peel
