Pay & Play at Anderton
We arrive at the Anderton Centre in Chorley at around 12:30 for our Pay and Play session at 1pm. I’ve brought along my own inflatable Stand-up Paddleboard , as the centre allow you to bring certain items of your own equipment if you have it.
I’ve not actually used my SUP yet, and the staff, who greet us, are happy to provide advice as I piece it together for the first time. While I’m doing this the kids are asking the staff about the climbing wall, leap of faith, rope climb and various other challenges that are situated around the car park. They also want to know if this is a hotel, asking me “Are we staying here tonight daddy?”
“Unfortunately, not,” I reply, as the staff tell them all about the residential experiences that the centre provides for schools and the Duke of Edinburgh Award.
“Can you ask our school do a residential here?” my 10-year-old son, Harrison, asks.
“I can ask,” I tell him. It would be nice, as the residentials sound like great fun and perfect for confidence and team building in young people, but as we live in Leeds, I’m not sure he’ll be so lucky. I do promise that I’ll sign them up to the Summer School Adventure Club though, at least for a day, so they can try some of the other exciting activities that the Anderton Centre offers.
At ten to one, with my own board now fully inflated, we make our way to the changing rooms, where we’re sized up by the staff and given wetsuits, waterproof jackets, helmets and a buoyancy aid. Then it’s down to the water’s edge to pick up our craft.
We spend ten minutes giving the new SUP a trial run before deciding to take an expedition in the kayaks to the far side of the lake, where Go Ape is situated. Because our daughter hasn’t kayaked before we take her out on one of the centre’s twin kayaks with me, while her brother Harrison is happy to have his own. It’s a sunny day in early April but there’s a bit of wind and I’m happy the centre provided the jackets. As this is a Pay and Play session, we don’t have an instructor as such, but the session is supervised by a helpful gentleman called Paul, who is more than happy to provide guidance.
He tells us to head into the wind first, then paddle to the far side of the lake at a 90-degree angle. “Then do the same on your way back,” he tells us. We dutifully head into the wind, making slow progress against the waves but laughing the whole time, then turning as we’re instructed we head to the far side and make that journey in no time at all as the wind isn’t against us. It’s great fun for the kids watching people ziplining through the trees at Go Ape as we head toward them and once we’re on dry land we spend a few moments splashing around in the shallows.
Then we’re back in our kayaks heading toward the centre again but being blown downwind of it by the waves. We’re on the right side of the lake when Paul blows the whistle, to let us know our hour is up and to head in, but Harrison is a little tired now and it’s taking a while for him to get back. No matter, Paul is on hand in the motorboat to offer him a lift back, scooping him from his kayak and into the boat, then pulling the kayak up too! A few seconds later they’re back at the launching point and Harrison is climbing back in the kayak on top of the motorboat with a huge smile on his face. “One, two, three,” Paul shouts as he slides the kayak off his boat and into the water with Harrison sat on it. Harrison loves it and wants to do that again, but the session is up.
I have a sneaky feeling that when we come again, and we will come again, he’ll deliberately want a lift back at the end, just to be slid off the motorboat.
