This time we went to Elveden in Suffolk, as we've never been to that one before so thought we'd give it a go. I was definitely not keen on returning to Longleat after the last time, I did actually want to have a holiday which I would enjoy and going back there would certainly not allow that to happen. So hence our choice of Elveden, which we had heard was much flatter than Longleat and a bit smaller, so it was slightly more compact with less people.
On Monday, the five of us packed into my Mum's Citroen C3 with loads of suitcases and we were ready to go, with only one mere problem in that my mother's car is tiny. It's essentially a car for midgets. My Dad has been begging my Mum to buy a bigger car for years, and she's been having none of it. She isn't, however, the one who has to squeeze in the back next to a whinging child who radiates heat the same temperature as the sun and a lanky unsociable 17 year old who's blasting dubstep out of his headphones as though he's half deaf, with virtually no room left for important things, like breathing. But that's the joys of family bonding, isn't it? I think? Who knows, the point is, there wasn't much room. However, we were going on holiday for the first time in two years. So I wasn't complaining. That much.
We arrived in our midget car in mid afternoon and it was sunny, happy and had a good atmosphere. I did actually forget that the second you enter Center Parcs, it is like entering your own little world. It's desolate from any towns or cities, there is just beautiful open countryside surrounding you, and it's gorgeous. We hired our bikes and found our little cosy cabin not far from the Center Parcs Village Square. Luke made the rookie error of bagging one of the bedrooms for himself and Jack, before realising that this was in fact the smallest room and the size of a cupboard in comparison to the bedroom he'd left me. So I was happy but Jack was slightly pissed off.
Throughout the week we got up to all sorts of activities to keep us busy. We played Badminton and went on long bike rides which were brilliant, very exhausting, in the case of the bike rides, especially when my Dad was leading the way, but great all the same. We also went on a pedalo boat in the lake, during which time my Dad sent us straight into a water fountain and we were all drenched. The swimming pool was amazing - they usually are at Center Parcs. I'm a little kid when it comes to swimming, I absolutely love it. This swimming pool had huge slides, a really powerful wave machine and rapids which we must have gone on at least a hundred times. It wasn't difficult to go crashing into other people and get bashed and bruised, but that was part of the fun.
I actually ended up injuring myself in the kids adventure playground as well. I was balancing on a horizontal giant rope, and to cut a long story short, I basically fell off it and gave myself really bad rope burn right across my arm. I may be 20 in a few months but I swear I still have the mental age of a 5 year old, it's pretty shameful. But completely worth it....
Tree trekking on Wednesday was quite eventful; we were attached to harnesses and had to do an assault course through the trees, and it was actually really good. I have to confess I had a bit of a tiny incident. I jumped off a wooden ledge to get to the next part of the course attached to a zipwire, and I did reach the next wooden ledge but ended up accidentally heading back down the zipwire in the wrong direction. I was hanging there for a good 2 minutes before one of the helpers came to rescue me. My family have insisted time and time again and will do no doubt until I'm old and grey that I pulled a "Boris" (if you haven't seen the video, I've added it below), but still maintain that I did not. Boris got stuck half way on the zipwire, at least I made it to the other side. Back up on this would be extremely appreciated.
All in all, I would say our holiday was a success! Without consideration of brief family bickering, minor medical implications with my brother which I won't go into, and moments of stupidity on my part, it was actually brilliant. Same time, same place next year, please?
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