Exmoor Activity Centre with Midi & Lesley

 Exmoor Activity Centre 

Everyone was very excited to hear that climbing was our first activity of the holiday. After being kitted up with helmets and harnesses, we followed Tiff to the outside climbing wall. We started with a team building session, where we took it in turns to be pulled in the air along the zip wire, hoisted upwards by other members of the group. It was great fun ringing the bell at the end before being lowered back down to the ground. From here we tackled two different climbing walls, everyone had a go and loved challenging themselves on the more difficult wall. Tiff then set us a further challenge of abseiling down the wall, again everyone took on the challenge. Some of us were very confident, others needed some reassurance, but we were all very brave and succeeded. 

We donned our life jackets headed through the woods to the lakeside. We all climbed into two canoes and set off from the jetty, paddling our way to the opposite side of the lake. Tiff had 2 fun games for us to play. One was to skilfully position the front of our canoes pointing to an imaginary 3, 6, 9 and 12 o’clock. The other was to rescue 'animals' from the lake - small floating objects thrown into the water for us to collect. Both were great fun indeed. 

It was then time for our cycle around the lake. Everyone was allocated a suitable bike - either a recumbent bike, ones with two seats side by side or the privilege of an electric one. And off we went, winding our way through the woods, following the track around the lake. Everyone managed really well and after one lap of the lake, we all agreed a second lap was needed. So off we went once more, negotiating the tricky corners with ease, pushing harder up the hills and speeding faster down them. A real challenge to the leg muscles indeed! 

Everyone was so excited for today! We got kitted out with our helmets, and then split into two groups. One for riding, one for a carriage ride. The first group were introduced to their horses, who were called Ruby, Henry, Moses, Poppy and Gordon. Everyone carefully mounted their respective horse, patiently waiting for each other to do so. 

Then it was off for several circuits of the arena, getting used to the feel of sitting on them and gaining confidence. We learnt how to stop our horses by saying 'woah'. From there we guided our horse through an obstacle of cones, gently pulling on the reins to the left and right to achieve the turns. We then progressed to a slightly faster walk, using all the instructions we'd learnt to control our horses to obey our commands. Once we'd dismounted, we helped to lead our horses back to their stable, and then were delighted to be asked to give them a gentle grooming session. Getting up close with them was very therapeutic indeed. 

An absorbing Halloween art session awaited us. There was lots of excellent focus from everyone, and masks, spooky pictures of bats, haunted houses and cats, plus pipe cleaner spiders were all carefully created. We took photos and felt very proud of our work. 

This morning's activity was crate stacking, which some of us had done before. We worked well as a team, along with some fabulous 'constructors' on the ground. The bar was set high by achieving a 9-crate stack, made to look very easy to us spectators.  What a morning it was, everyone had fun and encouraged each other along. 

Outside, we headed to the  Archery area. A quick demonstration by Lewis of how to hold the bow and load the arrow, meant we were aiming at the target very soon. We were given three arrows each to practice with, then progressed with two rounds of a further 3 arrows and kept a tally of our score. Then it was time for a silly game, where depending upon which colour of the target our arrows landed on, meant where we went on holiday, who we went with and what we did when we got there. Everyone was suitably amused! 

So much fun was had at the Halloween disco. We met Rosie the Witch who tried to entice us to eat a 'poisoned apple'. She was very captivating, and although we didn't accept her offer, she was marvellous at getting us all up to dance the night away in true JollyDays style.