Joanna's Blog

Sat 13th Feb at quads for all just outside of Hartlepool near Dalton Piercy, it was raining and it was very muddy, but this quad biking was booked so we had to do it.  Needless to say, my 17 year old younger brother Daniel, was well up for the challenge.  My younger, squeamish 18 year old sister Katie on the other hand, well she took a little more persuading. 

Parking was available on the site which is just off the beaten track of a country road and we were kindly greeted by the owner.  He showed us to the terms of use which we read through then within a few minutes we were on our quads – no messing about! 250cc quads and a quick guide of how to use them, we had a couple of small practice laps guided by the lads there, then the course was all ours!  I loved the fact were allowed to just go off!  I was going rather slow, just to get the hang of it, andcoming to a complete stop at every turn, as was Katie.  Daniel was straight into it with one lap done he was trailing behind us!  Bit by bit I managed to speed up, taking the corners at a little bit of speed and really getting into it!  There are staff on most of the big corners who point you in the right direction, gradually until your able to do the whole track.  I started moving down to the 2ndpart of the track which is way down hill with lots of bumps, holding on tight and not too much acceleration I bobbled down it bouncing around and laughing like crazy!  My pace gathered – and so did the mud, it was literally to the top of my helmet and all over my face through it, I was surprisingly not bothered and very happy to get completely covered.  We had a short break and a hot drink after 30 mins to give our thumbs rest (thumbs are used to accelerate the quads and after 30 mins we sure needed the rest) and had a good old laugh at how we’d all got on!

Back to the quads, I couldn’t wait!  The scenery is amazing here and the air was countryside fresh.  This time we were all very comfortable flying around the course knowing what paths were our favourite thrashing round them and waving when we went past each other.  The second half passed so quickly, we all just felt so at ease and were having superb time.  But all good things must come to an end and so did the quad biking.  We pulled up, took our helmets off and felt ready to carry on the day after an amazing start!   We  were covered in mud and said our goodbyes to the team there who were great, and knew we would return, £30 well spent for an full hours fun!

On to the Smiths Arms in Greatham for a hearty lunch and a warm up, my Mum had to bring us all clean clothes first.  One look at the menu and I was torn, between the Tees Valley favourite chicken parmo, peppered beef strips, and mince n dumps.  I went for the latter after much deliberation.  My brother went for a parmo, and Katie went for the homemade curry.  (Everything on the menu was home made, yum!)  After a few hot drinks, the food came in good timing and we munched through every last bit. Really good, home-some goodness grub, andwith most dishes priced at £4.95, it was a really good deal too.  We decided on 2 deserts, sticky toffee pudding and jam rolly polly andall had a taste of them.  A good all roundpub withgreat all round food.  Perfect for a bite to eat!

So if you would like to go quadbiking at Quads4All you can check out their website http://www.quads4all.org.uk/, they have quads and prices for all ages and take birthday parties, stag do’s etc.  You can see more great days out in our area at www.visitteesvalley.co.uk.