2nd March 2014 Longleat Laze 3

Just had a weekend break at Centre Parcs in Longleat, Wiltshire. Centre Parcs have several sites around Britain and their main focus is on short breaks with 'nature as a backdrop to everything we do'. With cabins in the woods, an extensive range of sports and leisure activities and a sub tropical swimming complex, Centre Parcs do cater for families (at a price!). With so much to do, and not so good weather, did not have too much opportunity to explore the many cycle tracks through the 400 acres of woodland.

Cabin in the woods

Six of us shared cabin 627 in the Firs area of Centre Parcs Longleat. Not all that attractive from the outside, the quality of the accommodation was very good with all mod cons. For a weekend break, with good company, it was excellent.

Pancake House

Took a ride out on Sunday morning whilst John cooked breakfast! There are many cycle paths and tracks throughout the complex, and with a good hiring facility, many of the families took advantage and hired bikes for family rides. This place is Pancake House, it does what it says on the tin, serves up pancakes, sweet and savoury, omelettes and waffles. Not for us thank you, we had taken all our food and catered for ourselves.

Cycle/pathways

With the accent on nature and recreation, Centre Parcs have done well to convert a forest into a recreational centre. The terrain is quite hilly and advantage has been taken to maximise the walking/cycling opportunities by sensible use of boardwalks and ramps. This one from the Pancake house to the lake is a good example.

Gandalf ?

One of quite a few tree sculptures, I can only surmise that this is Gandalf the Grey. Probably done with a chainsaw, not a bad effort at all.

Boating lake beach

Although about 50 miles from the coast, at least we can boast a trip to the beach this weekend. Man made of course, this is the centre of most of the water sports, canoeing, pedaloes, kayaks and yachting and at one end of the lake, an area for fishing. To the extreme right of the picture is the landing stage for a zip wire ride, the termination of a adventure walk through the tree tops.

Just a short 3 mile trip which only covered a small part of the 400 acres. The timing of the ride was brilliant, a full english breakfast was waiting on the table when I got back and shortly after, it started raining and became steadily worse throughout the day.