Everyone loves the seaside, especially hyperactive six and seven-year-olds like mine, and Bournemouth, with its seven miles of beautiful south-facing sandy beach has this kind of family fun in bucket and spade-loads.
But there’s more to this seaside town than ice cream and sand castles. Not only are its long paved promenades well suited to traffic-free family cycling, and its cliff-tops great for coastal walks, but its pier, of all places, is a Mecca for young climbing and potholing thrill seekers.
Pushing (Dad’s) limits
It’s somewhat ironic that after decades of thrill-seeking adventures, climbing up mountains, bombing down them on bikes, surfing, and risky wild camping that I should find my undoing just metres into a fibreglass network of tunnels on the end of a pier. But that’s precisely what happens when I try to follow the rest of my family into Bournemouth’s Pier Cave in the Rock Reef activity centre. Okay, so I’m 6ft 2 and I’m carrying a big DSLR camera but if truth be told, I bottle it! My two children and comfortable-hotel-loving wife Lisa on the other hand squirm and wriggle through the spaghetti of tight tunnels and love the triumph of besting the challenge – and Dad. So much for having to tone down adventures for the little ones!
Later that day I try to recover some self-esteem by jumping off a 20m high tower on the end of the pier onto the 250m Pier-to-Shore Pier Zip – a zip line world first which flies you heart-in-mouth across the surf to the beach. A height and weight restriction on this means I can do one thing ‘braver’ than the kids…
Wall-to-wall excitement
Back inside the RockReef centre we all race each other up the Clip N Climb climbing walls, the children amazing us with their bravery and speed as they gain in confidence, using the karabiners to clip on and off and climb without help. Lisa discovers her competitive streak too, and I have to rely on desperate, long-reach lunges for the timing button to ensure I’m not beaten by everyone! So much fun is had I determine to take us all ‘real’ climbing soon.
That evening we take on the challenge of piled-high portions of Cajun food at the noisy, fun Hot Rocks eaterie on the beachfront, surrounded by surf memorabilia, before waddling back to our hotel. With a big modern room, fantastic views, friendly staff and a hearty buffet, Marsham Court Hotel is the perfect base for our three days of beach-centred fun. Lisa is happy too.
The long ride Home
On our final day, we head down to the Front Bike Hire, just past Harry Ramsdens hugely popular fish and chips bar, which looks perfectly placed for dinner after the ride. Fifteen minutes later we are sorted with two adult bikes, one kids bike and a Tag-a-Long, and riding down the traffic-free – albeit pedestrian-packed – beachfront, heading west towards Sandbanks.
As it turns out, the 10-mile round trip is the furthest Daniel has ever ridden on his own, and a great confidence booster for him and us. Three hours, two ice creams and a game of tag on the beach later, we’re back, ready for our Ramsdens reward.
Looking back, our Bournemouth escape was great fun, rammed with excitement and challenges, and an important lesson that you don’t have to go wilderness backpacking to have an adventure.
