Quad Bike Safari, Edinburgh

• A one hour quad bike safari
• The team opted for the location just outside Edinburgh
• Get to grips with a Yamaha Grizzly fully automatic 125cc quad

On a sunny, but very fresh spring, Sunday morning the Gift Experience Team met bright eyed (but not so bushy tailed!) to head out together to the activity centre which lies a few miles south-west of the Edinburgh city boundary.

Upon arrival at the centre, we were warmly greeted by the team who were looking after us for our quad biking adventure. We were shown to a reception area where, whilst enjoying hot drinks, we were given a safety briefing. Following on from this, we were taken to a ‘kit hut’ where we were fitted out with overalls, a balaclava and helmet (on a cold day, I would advise taking gloves – I was very glad of mine!).

Once we were appropriately attired, we were led back outside and introduced to the fleet of quads that we would be using for our quad bike safari. Our instructor gave us a thorough overview of how to use the quads including the essential controls and then we were set and ready to go!

In a line, we followed our instructor, through a gate that led from the activity centre in to the fields and parkland beyond to start our adventure. We started in a wide open space where we could practice speeding up and slowing down as well as sharp turns so we could build our confidence without any risk of crashing into any obstacles (or each other!).

We were then led out in to a huge area of parkland where we got to put our new skills to the test under the careful tutelage of our instructor. This included driving down mini half-pipes, ascending and descending steep hills and a long straight where we were able open up and get some real speed. We did two laps of this ‘circuit’ – the first involved a little more tuition and on the second our instructor would zoom ahead with us following, giving us plenty of freedom to put our quad biking abilities to the test.

At the end of the experience, we returned to the activity centre – full of adrenaline and with wide grins plastered across out faces. This is a really awesome experience that the whole team loved – even the non-petrol heads of the group!