Walks around the estate in the morning then more gym for Me and Er.
Josh and me braved the “Aerial Adventure” and the zip wire across the lake at the end.
Ice creams and coffee all round before more badminton and squash for Brad and Kelvin.

Josh and Jamie had their Aqua Jets session first thing for 30 minutes and we all spent the next couple of hours negotiating the rapids, slides, hot tubs, cold dunk pool and the waves.

Badminton in the afternoon and a BBQ in the evening

Getting tired after all this activity

Gladiator Challenge for Josh today pm and Tai Chi for Irene.

Josh was the best of the bunch and Irene came back worn out! (All the stretching)

Moorhen nest near the bird hide

Silly Billy’s around gym circuit

Pancakes for lunch at the “Pancake House” . JP in his photogenic mood. Little poser.

Off on the bikes in the morning to explore some more and found our way around all the facilities.

Bradley broke the gears on his bike and had to walk it back to the lodge

Bowling on Saturday evening , Kelvin won

Left home for a week’s adventure at Centre Parcs with Brad,Nat, boys, Jacob, Kelvin and Steff

Arrived at our lodge at 2.00 pm and spent the afternoon exploring

Started our European trip at The Strovers for an overnight stay before a relatively early start for a ferry Dover to Calais at 11am. Crossing was fine, ie no waves!
En route to Chateau in mid France to celebrate Chris’s 60th birthday, with 24 others, should be fun. Marianne has booked first night in Rheims at a Campanile. Sounds sexy!
Campanile right by the canal and great position for town. Went out to find a meal and found a great bar where we put the average age up, not by much as there were a lot of them!!
Off to local Flo for our meal. Very good oysters.
Next day to Chateau stopping at Dijon for lunch and a bit of Chateau shopping.
Arrived at Chateau about 6pm, we were with a group in the converted stables, which really worked well. We all knew each other and had great communal breakfasts that the main Chateau dwellers were very jealous of. As a result our numbers for breakfast grew as the week progressed.
Chris and Martin had organised the first two days food, sanglier on first night and salmon for party night. After that it was a communal effort for the rest of the week.

View of main Chateau

Party day was 6th May, that is Chris’s birthday. They decided on 60’s theme, ugh went the Butts, but it was really good. Everyone made a great effort and a of bit hippy gear was relatively easy to find, SO following are party pictures of that day

Revellers in general !

A very pleasant windy, cool but bright and sunny day in Plymouth.

A short walk before a pleasant lunch at the Ship in Noss Mayo

Plymouth Sound

The Sound from a different angle !

David and Pres

We had a great visit to Olivers Bakery in Crediton where one of our members, David Oliver, demonstrated the art of bread making. We all donned our aprons and had a go at constructing our loaves and rolls, bloomers, platted shapes with seed toppings etc. A great night and thanks to David and Dianne . Some of our efforts as follows.

Not bad ??

The Boys did well

We all took our efforts home and thanks to David we made a little money for Rotary funds

5 Days to Go