STAFF REVIEW OF ARCHERY AND QUAD BIKING IN WARWICKSHIRE

We recently had the amazing opportunity to participate in some fun activities at Garlands Leisure in Warwickshire. Garlands Leisure offer activities from Motor Sports to Country Pursuits for everyone, including large groups and family days out. Read on for my review on our fun-filled day in the country.

When I first heard about the opportunity to take part in quad biking and archery, I was initially a bit worried, especially due to my driving skills! But nevertheless, I was glad I took part as the day was an adrenaline fuelled rollercoaster.

Arriving at Garlands Leisure, located on a 150 acre farm, the venue looked superb for hosting a variety of outdoor activities. At 08.45, we were greeted in the lodge by the friendly staff who checked us in and gave us the all important forms to fill out. We then met our friendly instructor Glyn, who gave us a little run through of the activities for the day.

Looking out at the archery range through all the fog, concerns set in as to whether we’d even be able to see where we were firing our arrows. However, approaching the archery range, all became clear. The fog actually added an effective atmosphere!

Glyn explained the dos and don’ts of archery and how to keep ourselves- and especially others- safe. Demonstrations of how to connect the arrow to the bow and how to hold the bow itself were shown, as well as a practise round to get us used to the bow. Once we’d all had a quick practise, we got started in the competition.

As most of you probably know, it’s best to aim for bullseye for the best scores. I, on the other hand, wasn’t the best at aiming for bullseye and actually didn’t hit the board at all on some of my tries (oops!). However, to make it a fair competition, Glyn switched up the rules of the game (to help us less fortunate archers out) and had us aiming for the outer circle, which became equivalent to bullseye. This definitely helped a few of us out as we got our highest scores in this round.

The archery experience lasted for an hour, with all the scores being kept throughout in order to announce the winner at the end of the day. Then it was time for quad biking!

Glyn walked us back over to the lodge for a quick break, and to prepare ourselves for our next adventure. We were then given waterproof clothing (which is optional) and a helmet (which isn’t). Once we were kitted up, it was time to head over to the quad biking ground.

As we approached the lined up quad bikes, the nerves set in again. Glyn ran us through how to use the bikes, as well as all the safety procedures to remember in an emergency. One by one, we each had a turn to practise on the quad bike by doing a figure of eight round the field. It was harder than it looked but once everyone had had a practise, it was time to head out!

We set off through the open fields in a line behind Glyn, with a second instructor, Matt, at the back. We were guided through small woodland areas, leaving some of us in tricky situations when we got stuck between tree trunks or veered off the track into the shrubs. We even managed to get our quad bikes stuck on top of one another! Luckily, the instructors were always there to give us a hand and manoeuvre us out of these conditions.

We carried on through the shrubs and woodlands until we came to a river bank. It was a steep slope into the river but we all managed to conquer it! With guidance from our instructors, we were told to lean back and use our brakes. One at a time, we made our way down the steep bank and onwards through the river, feeling very much relieved!

Throughout the 1 hour quad biking trek, we tackled a variety of terrains including steep slopes, rivers, tricky woodlands and even fields of sheep! The open fields were my personal favourite as it allowed you to gain speed and properly experience the power of one of these off roaders. Some of the fields had small obstacle courses which we made our way through, which gave us a chance to test out our steering techniques.
As a whole, this quad biking experience was a challenge, but in a very good way. It was adrenaline fuelled, action packed and was a great experience for a large group.

Back at the activity base we returned our waterproofs (and attempted to fix our helmet hair), before meeting up with Glyn to hear the scores of the archery competition. The top three were given medals to commemorate the day, and poor Evie and I got nothing for coming 4th and 5th!

The whole morning was challenging but enjoyable, so I would highly recommend it for groups of friends or as a unique adventure gift to celebrate a special occasion.

If you want to put your outdoor skills to the test by participating in the Quad Bike Trekking,  please follow the link below:

Quad Bike Trekking – Warwickshire