A little while ago, an email landed in my inbox asking if I’d like to visit Wicksteed Park. As it turned out, the first weekend we could attend happened to be my birthday. Translation: I didn’t want to miss Wimbledon and my birthday was the weekend after. Wicksteed Park offers a range of activities from kids play areas to bag jumps and zipwires – a step outside of my comfort zone for sure.
Saturday
Birthday Breakfast
Me being me, I spent a while planning my birthday breakfast. Some of you may have seen on Instagram, but I ended up making these triple chocolate pancakes. Ben & Jerry’s at 9am is always a good thing.
Arriving at Wicksteed Park
After that, we set off for Wicksteed Park. It’s in Kettering, just over three hours from home, so we were spending the night camping there too. Camping – also out of my comfort zone. Anyone who saw my travel makeup bag post will be aware that travelling light isn’t exactly an area in which I excel. Thankfully, it stayed dry for the weekend, but we did have a battle with the wind getting the tent up.
Clip n Climb
Our first scheduled activity for the weekend was Clip n Climb. Not going to lie, I disillusioned myself into thinking that this would be easy. The website said for ages 4-104, my brain took that as ‘if small kids can do it, it’ll be easy’. I was wrong, this was hard, my arms ached the next day (upper body strength is generally beneficial for climbing). But it was so much fun! I think Clip n Climb turned out to be my favourite activity of the weekend, and you get a full hour session when you book in, so there’s plenty of time to try some different walls.
My mum had an attempt at climbing a few walls too but was afraid of the height when she got about half way (the walls range from 7.2-9.8m). The staff were great and helped her make it to about 80% of the way up one with some gentle encouragement. They also persuaded me to jump off the walls when I was adamant on climbing down. It turns out jumping off is more fun…even If you do land flat on the floor sometimes.
Sunday
Our first stop on Sunday morning (after coffee) was to visit the meerkats. You can go in and crawl through some burrows so you’re in their space with them (behind a plastic dome) but I wasn’t too keen on that idea so we decided to hang back instead.
Zipwire
We had a zipwire session booked that morning, which I was quite excited about. Until I got up there and suddenly realised that I was about to jump off the edge of a building. You can choose which way you’re facing when you jump off, I highly recommend facing the building rather than…nothing. The fear disappeared the second I jumped off and started moving.
Zipwires at Wicksteed Park are just over 15m off the ground, and 310m long. Apparently, it takes around 30 seconds to get from one end to the other, but it definitely feels like longer than that in the air. I was quite surprised at how much slower it felt considering you travel at around 30 miles an hour.
I was chatting so someone who works in one of the onsite cafes about the zipwire just before we headed over for our session about when her granddaughter went up. She’s 8 and she was fearless.
Bag Jump
This wasn’t planned at all, but when we were walking back to the zipwire starting point to collect my camera, we saw someone do the bag jump and I wanted to try it. Luckily, there was only one person booked in for the following session so we were allowed to join. Time to jump into the air again. They talk you through how you’re supposed to land. The keyword here is ‘supposed’, my landing was a bit off every time. Your first attempt is from the top of the blue ladder shown here, land correctly on the bag and you can jump off the first platform. Get that one right and you have the option to jump from the top platform.
I found the bag jump a little bit weird, some of the excited was ruined by being preoccupied with trying to land correctly so I didn’t feel like I got the full experience. If you were better at landing, this probably wouldn’t be the case. And despite not having a harness (obviously), I found this less nerve-wracking than the zipwire. Probably because you look down and know you’re jumping onto a soft bag of air…
After the jumps and a walk around the park, we headed back home to be reunited with Hugo. You are allowed to take dogs with you, but they have to be with a human at all times (of course) and because we were booked in for our activities at the same time, Hugo stayed home on this occasion. He’s more of a fluffy pillows and blankets kinda dog than a camper anyway…
Have you ever been to Wicksteed Park? Which activates would you be the most excited about?
Until next time,
Sophie
*My stay at Wicksteed Park was kindly gifted.
Oh wow such an exciting birthday! Happy belated birthday! I love all you did, climbing is so interesting even if I did it once!
xx Dasynka
http://dasynka.com
This looks like an amazing birthday trip! Wicksteed park looks gorgeous and I’ve heard some really great things about it as I actually know someone who works there x
Kayleigh Zara http://www.kayleighzaraa.com
Oh my gosh this sounds right up my street! I love activities like that, this sounds like so much fun. Go you for trying things out of your comfort zone (totally not sure I could do the camping part, aha!) and it sounds like you had an amazing time!
Looks like so much fun! Hope you had an amazing birthday ❤️
Oh wow so much fun I’m really jealous! I love zipwires so I would have be super excited about that. Perfect that it timed well with your birthday too x
It sounds like you had a great birthday weekend. I love activities like this so would definitely pay a visit. The climbing wall or zip wires would be my faves.
Happy belated birthday lovely <3 So glad you had such an amazing and exciting birthday weekend!
https://lifewithmins.blogspot.com
Sounds like you had a fun birthday! And those pancakes look and sound delish!!
http://www.sundaydahlias.com
It looks like you had an amazing weekend! I’ve never heard of it but I’ll definitely be looking it up now. I love Meerkats and all the activities look like really good fun, I don’t think climbing is for me mind I have no upper body strength either!
Abi xo | Wanderlust Daydreaming
What a grand celebration for your birthday! Happy Belated Birthday and thanks for sharing this wonderful trip! It seems it is a great place to enjoy and visit even on a typical day.
This literally looks like so much fun! I definitely need to see how far away it is from me!
Love, Amie ❤
The Curvaceous Vegan
your breakfast sounds AMAZING omg x
This looks like so much fun and those pancakes look gorgeous!
-Kyra
Sounds like you had a great time! I love zip wires! My family are thinking about going away for the weekend at the end of August, might suggest having a look at this!
Ellyn x | Life Of A Beauty Nerd
What a party!
Happy late birthday!! This sounds like such a fun-packed weekend; I’ve never gone rock climbing before, but I’ve always wanted to ever since I watched The Princess Diaries :’) (that is in the movie right?? I’m currently very sleepy, and maybe I’m wrong haha!) That breakfast looks DIVINE, now I want to carefully prepare a fab breakfast for my birthday in a few months!
Aw sounds like a lovely time x
Grace Louise
That looks like such a fun place to visit! I love climbing walls, and those ones look like so much fun – so bright and colourful, and different than the usual rock style hand holds.
Sounds like an amazing birthday. Ben & Jerry’s is always a good idea.
x,
S | Je M’appelle Chanel
Happy belated birthday! It is exciting that you got to check out Wicksteed Park. Oh wow, there are so many different cool climbing courses. I know I would be scared of some *o*. It is so cool that you got to zipwire too! Wow, glad you had so much fun at the park! I would be excited for the big jump, hehe.
Nancy ♥ exquisitely.me
Omg those pancakes! They look incredible. Glad you had such a good time, it sounds like so much fun! xx
Tiffany x http://www.foodandotherloves.co.uk
It sounds great! Happy belated birthday x
Belated Happy birthday Sophie! So awesome to see you had lots of fun and got to do all of these stuff for your birthday. I cannot do any sort of rock climbing … anything vertical and involves upper body strength. Good for you for making it up there! Zipwiring is so much fun, I’ve only done it twice but it’s quite exciting! That bag jump is pretty cool as well. I thought Hugo was a stuffed animal, he looks SOO incredibly relaxed and fluffy and cute!! <3
Geraldine | https://geraldinetalks.com
This looks so much fun! I’d love the climbing walls. I’ve done rock climbing a few times and love it! Those pancakes look delicious. And Hugo really is such a mood haha!
Oh that’s so cool! Sounds like a fantastic birthday! Happy belated birthday my love!
Looks like you had a great time! The bag jump looks fun, I’d probably be concentrating on how I’m landing as well though. The climbing looks so fun, I haven’t done rock climbing for years, it would definitely ache my arms but would love to do it again. I’ve been to Wicksteed park before, but not for a looong long time. Hugo is too cute <3
Chloe xx
http://www.chloechats.com
I’m not sure I would be brave enough for the activities but could certainly handle the breakfast 🙂
All of this looks amazing. Chocolate pancakes, yes please!!! I’d love this park as well, what a lot of fun. I’m happy you enjoyed yourself & I hope your birthday wishes come true 🙂 x