Center Parcs Day 1

If I have calculated correctly, this is my 13th break at Center Parcs in Elveden. Samey, some might say but in seventeen years it’s become our favourite place and I confess we plan to return again before 2018 is over.
This is our second stay in the Breckland apartments, somehow we have managed to book the same room as last year. The apartments are lovely, a view over the golf course and just a few steps from the Aqua Sana, most convenient.

Once the car is parked and the cases unpacked, you enter a whole other world. Set in the beautiful forest, sharing a habitat with grey squirrels, roe deer and muntjacs, rabbits and a multitude of bird species, you are never more than a few steps away from awesome.

I had vowed to hire bikes with my husband on this occasion so we dutifully collected them, feelings most definitely mixed. I haven’t been on one for around eight years but it really was like riding a bike. Contrary to expectations, off I cycled without trepidation.

We enjoyed a couple of hours in the swimming pool which was busy with both departing and arriving families. The rapids were constantly busy and, fearing for the loss of my teeth, I waited patiently for gaps between bodies before daring to venture down them.

Tiredness overcame us so instead of eating out we headed to the Parc Market to buy pizza to cook back at the apartment. This we enjoyed on our balcony and, once rested, we headed back out to explore on the bikes.

I spent lots of time stopping to film deer and birds and, after a general mooch, around we both agreed that exploring the site was better on foot, with more time to take in surroundings and wildlife. Not to mention the unmentionable – my poor bum and bits which were already saddle sore.

We’ll return the bikes to the cycle centre later in the week. They can sit quietly in the cycle park outside the apartments until we do.