September is a good month to get lost in a corn maze. Although many farmers wind down their summer-only mazes around now, our recent wet August has meant that most will still be opening at the weekend till early October. September is when the corn can reach as high as 12 foot, and if you can find one of the 35 mazes around the country designed by Dorset-born Adrian Fisher, the world’s leading maze maker, then take your wellies and get ready for an adventure.

Fisher has been galvanising farmers across the country to join a scheme where he provides maps, designs and know-how for a few years now, and his ideas just get better and better. Indeed many of the farmers are finding their summer sideline more profitable than farming itself.

“At the moment none of our mazes are closed due to flooding”, says Fisher "The lack of sunshine has meant some mazes have not reached their full height yet, but all they need is a few more dry sunny days to catch up."

Mazes are a hit with our children. Last year we took them to the Poplars Mega Maze in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire expecting an hour or so of entertainment. Five hours later we were still trying to coax them into the car as they ran after a kite they had spotted flying in the distance.

It was nothing like the 20-minute whizz-through-at-Hampton-Court that we had expected. But then, non of the Adrian Fisher mazes are like nothing you’ve experienced. Three-quarters of the farmers joining his scheme use his theme (this year – Magical Mazes) and maps, clues and spells make it into a thorough orienteering trip.

In fact, if I had only one criticism, it would be that the clues and board-finding is too difficult, designed for a higher IQ than our family could supply. Like many, we abandoned the map and clues to run amok in the corn.

One of the clever ideas Fisher has supplied is a tall flag given to each family so they don’t lose each other. It turns even the youngest member who holds it into an important “leader” figure, and it keeps you all together in sites as big as four hectares. “It turns the family into something quite dramatic”, says Fisher “like St Augustine leading his troops up the beach”. We would definitely have lost each other for hours without the red flag.

Fisher also designs bridges at key points so you can all climb aloft to gawp at how far you have come. It is an eerie, disorientating experience getting lost in the maze, but the simple rawness of it all stays with you for a long time. I dreamt corn that night. And there is also this tremendous sense of relief when you all finally emerge, slightly bedraggled and exhilarated. Granny sat wisely in the courtyard throughout all this, sipping her cup of tea

What also impressed me was the length the farmer had gone to provide extra entertainment for the children in the courtyard. For around four quid each, he supplied sandpits with hay bales around them, trampolines, kites, tractor ride-ons and even wet sponges to throw at hand-painted boards (where you poke your head through).

Young farm-hands untangled the kites for the children, or went off to find extra cricket balls, and the whole scene felt genuinely uncommercial and unhurried - as if you had interrupted some corn festival and been invited to join in. For a final late summer splash, I can think of nothing finer. So go on then, take the children and go get lost.

More mazes to get lost in

Adrian Fisher Mazes Ltd

Times recommends

• Same flight + different airline code = £225 out of pocket
• The UK and Ireland's 25 best Christmas events
• Book 2010's best holidays now