Bluestone National Park Holiday in Wales: Day Two

The holiday fun continues with day two of our holiday at the fab Bluestone national park in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The fresh air and non-stop activities mean that the girls are sleeping even better than usual, which means we get to have a (relative) lie-in too.

Baby and big sister in cot www.FranglaiseMummy.com

L and C slept late and then entertained each other in C’s cot, leaving Hubs and me to sleep 🙂

We had booked C in to 3 hours of creche activity – Captain Cove Seaside Discovery – in the morning, during which time we intended to go back to the Adventure Centre, where we hoped L would feel more comfortable letting herself “fall” when on the climbing wall. As I tried to convince L to overcome her fears she decided that maybe I should overcome mine and climb the wall by her side.

Eek! I last went on a climbing wall over 20 years ago and I don’t have fond memories of it. I’m far from being an adventurous, adrenaline junkie so this was a biggie for me. I felt I had to do it though, as otherwise how could I teach my 7 year old about feeling the fear and doing it anyway?!

After dropping C off we wandered through to the Adventure Centre, only to find out we had an hour to wait before we could do “The Big Four” (which the climbing wall comes under). There’s nothing like prolonging the agony…. So we played a spot of Mini Golf while we waited.

Girl playing mini golf www.FranglaiseMummy.com

L trying her hand at mini golf

Finally it was time to get up the climbing wall. Our instructor, Mike, could see we were both nervous and had us doing some fun (embarrassing) games to get us warmed up. But in no time it was time to climb….. I won’t lie. I was bricking it. I’m in zero physical condition but I had to show L how to face her fears head on. So off I went.

Mum and daughter on climbing wall www.FranglaiseMummy.com

The first wall I climbed with L

I made it about halfway up and then couldn’t take it anymore, so I let myself lean back, fall into the harness and come down (the bit that L finds hard to do). Mike was great at getting L to let go from fairly low, building up and building up until she let herself go from up high. She was so chuffed that she managed to do it. Having got up half of one wall Mike was keen for us to move onto a second, harder, wall. I was far from convinced but gave it another go.

Mum and daughter on another climbing wall www.FranglaiseMummy.com

With L on the second, harder, climbing wall

After making it halfway up the second wall, with burning arms and hands, I felt I’d proved my point and came back down, climbed out of my harness and handed over the reins (harness) to Hubs.

Dad and daughter on climbing wall www.FranglaiseMummy.com

Hubs and L move on to the third, and hardest, climbing wall after I bowed out.

When we’d finished climbing I handed over to Hubs and L for the next adventure in “The Big Four” – the Sky Trail. This involved clambering round ropes and platforms, and whizzing down zip wires, high above the heads of those of us in the Adventure Centre.

Man on adventure rope www.FranglaiseMummy.com

Hubs up high on the Sky Trail

After this excitement it was time to collect C from her preschool adventures. She’d had a ball and came out with this fab pirate’s hat that she’d put together:

Pirate's hat toddler craft www.FranglaiseMummy.com

The pirate’s hat that C crafted

After a quick lunch L headed off on a “Mud adventure” where a group of 4-7 year olds, accompanied by a couple of adults, trekked through the countryside around the resort, on the hunt for dragons’ eggs and bones! This is something L did on her own and, judging by her excited state when she came home, it was good fun.

While she was out on the hunt for dragon remains Hubs took C back to the Blue Lagoon water park, where he bumped into Alison from Not another mummy blog and family. It would appear that C entertained everyone as she showed off her water nippers swimming skills (we will try to film these when on holiday in France this summer).

Having collected L from her mud adventure and fed her, I suggested we go out on a mountain bike ride together. Another chance for me to overcome some fears. I don’t cycle much these days, and certainly don’t mountain bike (after cycling down ski slopes in the Alps in the summer with a rather adventurous ex French boyfriend!), so I lowered Hubs’s bike saddle and clambered onboard. We cycled round the village, tried a hill or two and then headed to the beautiful lake where we took a couple of photos.

Girl on mountain bike by lake www.FranglaiseMummy.com

L on her mountain bike by the beautiful lake

Woman on mountain bike with toddler rucksack www.FranglaiseMummy.com

Me on Hubs’s mountain bike with C’s toddler reins rucksack as handbag & changing bag not practical on a bike!

We ended the day with me babysitting for Alison from Not another mummy blog (after she babysat for us the night before), which worked out quite well as Hubs spent the evening watching France play in the World Cup!

Yet another wonderful day at Bluestone National Park…..

Disclosure: our family was gifted a 5 day holiday to Bluestone National Park in exchange for one blog post about it. We’ve found it to be such an amazing place that I chose to blog about it each day, with our experiences. As ever this is totally honest and all words and opinions are my/our own.

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1 Response

  1. 27/08/2014

    […] least 12): as you can see from the video above and from my previous blog posts, Bluestone Day One, Bluestone Day Two, Bluestone Day […]

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