PGL Outdoor Centre, Shropshire - travel review

"I really enjoyed PGL because it gave me a great opportunity to make new friends and also enjoy it with them," says Martha.

James added: "I found PGL really good because all the activities were good and I made new friends, with whom I still talk to on my phone."

My grandchildren Martha, aged 11 and her brother James, 13, are part of a family with a spirit of adventure.

In the dim and distant past, I spent one of the most enjoyable times of my life at an outward bound centre which taught me a lot about comradeship, community and team building.

So I was determined to see my, family, in the shape of three children do something similar, but at a younger age.

The kids had the time of their lives when they joined a PGL or 'Parents Get Lost', adventure, quite a few years ago now.

So it seemed appropriate that their children should have the opportunity of enjoying the great outdoors in a similar way.

Although parents get lost sounds good for the children, the company actually takes its name from the initials of the man who started it all in the 1950s – Peter Gordon Lawrence.

Having trained as an engineer, he embarked on his first canoeing holiday down the River Danube in 1955 and became passionate for the outdoors and wanted to share his experience to enrich the lives of others so PGL was born and in 2017 celebrates its 60th anniversary.

Now thousands of children have benefited from that same spirit of adventure including James and Martha, who spent the week learning the various crafts of outdoor life, while undertaking a host of different activities offered by the firm.

They took a short break of four nights at PGL's Boreatton Park site the same place their mother and uncles had attended more than 25 years earlier.

The sprawling 250 acres has plenty to keep individual children or secondary school groups busy with land and water activities, plus a purpose-built sports hall and study space.

Children can stay in wooden lodges or tented village in the summer, while there is also accommodation in an imposing mansion house situated on the grounds for a bit more luxury.

Mansion house rooms with bunk beds sleep 6-14 students while teachers have en-suite twin rooms. The lodges accommodate four to six students, again teachers get the better end of it and the chalet-style tents can accommodate four students per tent, with one or two per teacher tent.

Other facilities include football pitch and playing fields, netball courts, meeting rooms and classrooms, plus a shop and drying room.

James took to it straight away, being a naturally gregarious character, but a gender mix-up meant Martha would take longer to settle as she had not been included initially with the group of girls. The first real test of character and tenacity. There are a host of activities including abseiling from a 10 metre-plus high tower; football coaching run by professional FA qualified coaches; cheerleading delivered by professional BCA coaches and street dance and netball are also on offer.

The varied menu is designed to offer healthy options for the children with plenty of variation. Both love their food and were more than satisfied. Activities over a planned series of timetables could include, high ropes course, giant, swing, archery, climbing, quad biking, zip wire, canoeing, raft building, Jacob's Ladder, all designed in instil team building and confidence in the youngsters.

James enthused: "The activity co-ordinators are very nice and were always in a good mood.

"The activities were fun and exciting and easy to get your head around and included teamwork where we built friendships with people we would not normally be friends with.

"We also enjoyed the free time, being able to hang around with our mates and our money in the shop." Martha added: "What gave me a great experience has got to be the staff. They were always positive and happy. Also if you had a problem they would take it seriously and cheer you up. The contribution everyone put in really helped make activities more fun and exciting.

"My favourite has got to be the aero ball. There were trampolines to bounce on and hoops to shoot into. It was basically trampoline basket ball."

Nothing much more to add really. Even those who are slow to settle usually end up having the time of their lives. So parents really can get lost.

By Bill McCarthy