A nice birthday surprise.
ADVENTURES #7: SANDGATE PARK AND WICKWOODS SPA
My thirty-fifth birthday rolled around at the end of August, and my progressive withering continued unabated. As a nice reprieve from facing mortality, Lottie arranged for a little surprise night away for us. She’s always good at arranging things for us to do, and as I’m notoriously difficult to buy for, a nice time suits me down to the ground. As such, a more perfect bank holiday weekend could not be devised. On Sunday, Lottie presented me with a little note suggesting a mini adventure was imminent. I was given a list of things to pack, and I was tantalised with a looming surprise. Thereafter my mind began to whirr, the only clues to what we going to do being my list of suggested items to pack and the knowledge that we were travelling within an hour of home.
After (over)packing we set off in the sun on the bank holiday Monday, and as it was August, it began to rain. As luck would have it, this was only a temporary blight, and en route, the sun started shining eventually. Lottie said we’d be stopping off for a little walk before reaching our final destination, as we couldn’t get there too early (hmm, another clue). After about twenty minutes in the car, and after eating lots of dried Mango (appropriately the brand was Forest Feast*), we pulled into a little wooded carpark and stepped out into Sullington Warren for our late morning wander.
We were following some instructions that Lottie had found online, but they neglected to include some vital directional information, and thus we had to begin the walk thrice! Once we got going properly, we became one with nature (we touched a tree and ate some blackberries). We also found ourselves some good sticks and took lots of photos as we followed the meandering pathways - occasionally stopping for non-found snacks along the way.
After reaching a big pile of logs, and briefly sitting down with all my imaginary friends, we emerged onto the road and crossed to resume the walk, entering into Sandgate Country Park.
We picked acorns as we went and circled the quarry before delving into the woods again, crossing a little stream, passing a lake, and eventually making it to the main event, so to speak.
Tucked away in amongst the trees are a trio of fairy bridges, with the largest (also known as the Moon Bridge) set across the main stream. Alone and shrouded by the trees, the little river crossing felt extraordinarily peaceful, and after getting our photo-taking fill, we sat down for a little fruit break and to attempt some pooh sticking (there was no current so they just remained where we dropped them).
Onwards after that to finish the walk, passing fields of heather along the way, and finding a mystical floating leaf. Could it have been suspended by a spiders web? Or was it fairy magic? Who knows. A little later we emerged from the park and circled back to the first stage of the walk, climbing the steps through the woods once more and descending into the car park.
From our walking stop, we were just under half an hour away from the secret location, and as we went on, the sun only shone brighter as Bill Withers kept us company on the stereo. The surprise location was spoiled by a sign just before arriving, but I was ignorant of that, not knowing where we were heading until the very last minute as we turned into the driveway of Wickwoods Country Club Hotel and Spa.
As we parked up, Lottie explained that we were there for the night, and after checking in and dumping our bags, we perused the room, checking out the tea and coffee situation, appraising the biscuits, bath products, literature, and robes, all before taking in the fresh air from our private balcony.
Once we were set, we left the room and made for the reception again to be given a tour of the facilities, seeing the pools, hot tubs, saunas and steam rooms, tennis courts, restaurant, bar, studio, and gym. First on the agenda was a swim in one of the aforementioned pools and soaking ourselves in the hot tub between baking sessions in the sauna (we avoided the steam room as we both wear glasses, and going in those makes it impossible to see). After that, and getting changed, we booked ourselves a slot on the courts and ordered some lunch (a large amount of hummus and halloumi). I also had a pint of tennis themed beer - Match Point, which went down perfect just before our game.
We were able to borrow rackets and balls from the club, but that was pretty much the extent of our readiness. Lottie unfortunately (despite writing the list of what to bring) forgot her own sportswear, and all I had were the trainers I was already planning on wearing along with a very old pair of shorts… Anyway, once we were as equipped as we could be, we nervously approached court two, which was slightly too visible to those in the bar area. Neither of us had attempted a game in many years, and we were both concerned about making fools of ourselves - ruining the doubles match that was taking place next to us was a real possibility… Luckily we weren’t as awful as we imagined and although we didn’t quite manage a proper game, we had lots of fun rallying for an hour or so as the afternoon wore on.
Once we had finished our game, we were itching for a swim again, and having booked some time in the outdoor pool, we showered, changed, and secured ourselves a little corner in the sheltered spa area. There we swam about in the little pool and soaked ourselves again in the hot tub there, finding it far more enjoyable in the open air. There was also a quenching bucket for after the sauna, and we had much fun watching people momentarily freeze themselves. After a couple of hours in the waning sun, we retired to our room to relax for a while.
Lottie had booked us in for a meal at a local pub (hence the nice clothes recommendation on the packing list), but after arriving at the spa, we both agreed that it was best to make the most of our time there, deciding to order room service instead - which was a real treat. A burger, chips, and beer, and we were both just about ready to nod off. Not before a bit more word searching for Lottie though, having become addicted to them on our way to Tenerife some weeks prior.
After a very comfortable sleep, we awoke early-ish to make use of the facilities again. I’m not usually a gym goer because I’m lazy and lack the funds, but when in a hotel with one, I am quite eager to have a go. As I attempted to move my creaky limbs, Lottie read in the sun, and after I was finished, we played some scrabble on the terrace and enjoyed a lovely breakfast - full English for me, and pancakes for Lottie. We were due to check out at 11, but the staff were very generous, allowing us to linger a little as no one was checking into our room after us. Once we had finished our late breakfast, we packed most of our stuff and ferried it to the car before returning to the outdoor pool and hot tub, not quite getting enough of it the day before. We thought perhaps that we might be able to fit in another game of tennis before leaving, but there were no slots available until the mid afternoon, but as it turned out we remained in the sheltered garden until well beyond that anyway. We’ll have to get our ball on racket fix somewhere else… After drying off from the hot tub and getting changed once more, we left the spa area and made for the carpark, leaving Wickwoods very much relaxed and very happy.
The sun was shining brightly in the afternoon, and as we drove homeward, we mused over how far from home we felt during our stay, and how we longed for one more night. As we neared home, we decided to stop off at the shops to fill up on petrol - and treats (the latter courtesy of my parents) in order to counter any health related activities we might have partaken in during the weekend - beer, steak, chocolate, coffee, wine, and some other various bits - a good way to end my thirty-fifth birthday.
So there we go, probably the last adventure before winter, or perhaps even next summer. We popped to Northern Ireland between this and Tenerife too for our friends’ wedding, but I didn’t end up writing about that. I was toying with the idea of doing summaries of past adventures we’ve had, but perhaps I’ll reserve that idea for a holiday drought - let me know what you think!
And as always, thank you for reading. If you’d like to support the blog, you can do so over on Patreon, or by subscribing and sharing!
*Amazon affiliate links.