Sam & Dad's Most Excellent Crazy Golf Tournament

Day One - Pirate Cove

Pirate Cove is probably the best crazy golf course in Great Yarmouth.  Very clean, great theme (pirates, obv), interesting holes, great fun.  It's also the most expensive one, yet the most popular - you'll nearly always have to wait for a minute or two to move on to the next hole.

Sam improved on the back nine, but Dad took the day!

Dad 1 Sam 0

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Day Two - Hollywood Indoor Crazy Golf

Located in what used to be the Windmill Theatre, this is a great idea for a crazy golf course.  Holes with individual themes sounds great, but the reality is rather disappointing.

The course is badly decorated, and showing its age.  The props are poor quality and the playability on some holes is dubious.  And which child (or adult for that matter) would like the instruction "hit the ball hard into the Killer Clown's mouth"?

The final hole is a large roulette wheel, and players hit their ball onto it and add the number that their ball lands in to their score - Sam hit the 10 - Dad hit the 36!  Giving Sam an equalising victory.

Dad 1 Sam 1

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Day Three - Pleasure Beach Adventure Golf

On our way to the Pleasure Beach we played round three of the Most Excellent Crazy Golf Tournament.  This turned out to be the closest round of the week, as Sam found some range and either tied or beat Dad on the odd hole.

In the end Dad won by ten shots, and Sam played very well.

Dad 2 Sam 1

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Day Four - Arnold Palmer Putting Course

So, the deciding match.  A win for Sam ties the tournament; victory for Dad seals the title.

The Arnold Palmer was designed by the great golfer himself - I believe it was distributed round the world in kit form to be rebuilt in situ.

It's a great fun course, more challenging than it first appears.  Sam put up a terrific fight, played very well, but lost out by 13 strokes.  Check out our scores on the seventeenth hole!

Final Score - Dad 3 Sam 1

So after four gruelling days, fifty eight holes, a killer clown and two holes-in-one, Dad is the 2011 Crazy Golf Champion!

Bewilderwood

 

We'd been to Bewilderwood before, in 2008, when we were on our first ever camping trip.  So it was about time we went back for another visit.

 

Bewilderwood is an eco-friendly children's adventure park.  There are no big rides, but there are walkways, rope bridges, slides and zipwires aplenty.  The place is the inspiration for the books by Tom Blofeld, which - according to Sam - are "the best books I've ever read!".  High praise.

 

We had a great time at Bewilderwood.  Here's Sam on the way out of the maze.

 

If you're looking for a full day's entertainment then this isn't the place to go.  We explored the park, thoroughly, twice, and left after four hours.  But what great fun!  This is the 25 metre slide, wide enough for three people to race down.  I beat Sam every time!

 

One of the best parts of Bewilderwood is the den building area.  No technology.  No screens.  No coin slots.  Just the chance to get interactive with trees, branches and the ground, in the building of dens.  Excellent fun!  We started with a couple of cross frames and a cross bar.

 

Sam flexed his muscles to gather suitable timber.

 

In short time we'd built a bijou shelter for one child!

 

There was a hiatus as Sam spoke to his mum.

 

We did consider claiming this beauty for our own....but that would be naughty.

Bewilderwood is fun.  It's even better if the books are read before your visit - the different parts of the park take on richer meaning.

Alton Towers it's not.  But as a fabulous place for your children to have down to earth, wholesome fun it's outstanding.  If slightly over-priced.

Boating At Wroxham

Here we are, togged up and ready to board the Skylark.  No sign of Nellie yet....

 

We chose a beautiful day to take a cruise on the Norfolk Broads, this time starting from Wroxham.

 

I let Sam drive for twenty minutes each way....he loves it and quickly got used to the slow response of the steering.

 

All supervised of course....plus I had to be on the lookout for river cops.

 

Sam enjoyed pretending other boats were pirates/terrorists etc.

 

On the return leg we found ourselves weaving through a lot of traffic, great fun!

 

And we even had time for a diversion along Wroxham Broad.  Most excellent fun!

Thrigby Hall

Thrigby Hall was a place to visit suggested by Old Bob.  It's near a village called Filby, just north-east of Great Yarmouth.  "There's tigers" he told us....we had to go.

Thrigby Hall is a fun place to visit, but it's too small to call itself a zoo, and the house itself isn't grand enough to merit calling itself an attraction either.  Their animals are very close to the public though, which makes a nice change.

The undoubted highlight is the tiger enclosure, which has aerial walkways allowing you to walk in and over the cats.  When we were there they were sunning themselves on narrow ledges alongside the slightly daunting enclosed walkway.

It looked like they'd had a hard day already....

We couldn't resist taking a photo which turned the traditional zoo roles right around!

Thrigby Hall - fun, small enough to see everything, and with some lovely inhabitants.  Quiet on the number of visitors too.  I suspect the Mandarin Duck liked it that way.

The large reptiles hold n added menace, being so close.  We were eyeball to eyeball with the chap above, through just one window.  If the thing had lunged at us I am sure we would both have had little accidents.  Or maybe big ones.

The ones outside were just as terrifying.  Really unnerving.  Plus, this guy can shape his mouth into an exact image of the Loch Ness Monster!

So, we enjoyed Thrigby Hall and would go again, despite it being slightly over-priced.

Merrivale Model Village

We rocked up at Great Yarmouth mid-afternoon, and immediately went for a stroll to see what was happening along the seafront.  First stop was Merrivale Model Village.

There's not much to be said about the photos, so I won't.  The models are very well made, very detailed, with lots of little quirky pastiches on display.

It's a classic family attraction, well put-together, maintained and displayed.  Slightly on the expensive side I think, but still Recommended.