A visit to Southport Pleasureland

Southport Pleasureland, the 'Happy Halloween Capital of the UK!'

We recently returned to Southport for the first time since September 2009 and we were pleasantly surprised to see that the Pleasureland theme park had reopened. Not only that, but it looked to be doing very well and they had really gone to town on the Halloween theming.

We survived the haunted maze at Southport Pleasureland

In fact they've gone so far as to declare themselves the 'Happy Halloween Capital of the UK!'

I don't think I have ever seen so many pumpkins in one place before. There are thousands of them there!

The pumpkins came in all shapes and sizes

Plenty of characters too

Some were ominously congregating

Others were on their own

There were clowns

'Sleeping' ones

And more traditional Jack-o'-lanterns

Unfortunately since our previous visit the Moroccan Adventure Golf course has been removed as the park has had extensive changes made. The area that was once home to the minigolf course is now a pathway. A shame really.

The Adventure Golf course at Pleasureland Southport as it was just after the theme park had been left abandoned in 2009

What the same area looks like now

However, the rest of Pleasureland is great. We really enjoyed our wander round - especially the walk through the haunted maze.

We dared to enter the haunted maze

A view of the outside world from within the maze

We escaped - as did our shadows

Check out the Southport Pleasureland website for more information and opening times.

You can see the blog post from our visit to Pleasure Land in 2009 in our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour archives.

Southport is still home to plenty of other Crazy Golf options and a lot of other things to keep you entertained. We're looking forward to our next visit and keep 'em peeled for more blog posts from our trip to Southport that are coming up.

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems.

You can now sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter.

Earlswood (Earlswood Lakes) - Farmer Steve's Golf Mini Course - Under (re)construction

On Friday 29th July 2011 we headed to Earlswood Lakes to check out the Crazy Golf course that we had seen advertised last year.

Our fellow Minigolf course explorers - Paul and Owen Johnson - played the course last year and reported back that it was of a concrete construction. However, looking around we found a number of obstacles and painted hole markers on a grass surfaced 'course'.

The course also looked to be under (re)construction, and the layout looked very different to the photos I had seen from last year.

Photos from our visit (July 2011)

Photo: The Rules of Play

Photo: Richard attempts to contact fellow Minigolf tourist Paul Johnson to inform him of the course changes

A leaflet we picked up at Earlswood Lakes also described the Miniature Golf course as "Farmer Steve's Golf Mini Course".

While we were at Earlswood Lakes Emily put me in the Stocks for the second time in two weeks, having spent a spell in the Stocks at the Adventure Golf course at Andover!

This year there is no Maize Maze at Earlswood Lakes. However, there are still a number of shops and a tearoom and on our short visit it seemed a nice place to wile away some time.

Earlswood Maize Maze Website

Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Laser Maze at Weston-Super-Mare's Grand Pier - and 'The Crystal Maze'

While on Weston-Super-Mare's Grand Pier we had a chance to play our first ever Laser Maze!

As big fans of Laser Tag (and all manner of other amusements) we couldn't wait to give it a go.

It's quite like playing one of the dreaded 'Automatic Lock-In' games on The Crystal Maze, in that you have to reach a target at one end of the room and return to touch another button to complete the task, all in the fastest possible time, and without breaking any of the Laser Beams!

I managed to beat Emily with a score of 399.4 to 427.0.

The Grand Pier is also home to 'The Crystal Maze'! Unfortunately it only shares its name with the brilliant TV Show and is not the same as the 'Cyberdrome' Crystal Maze Games (such as the one we played in Narbeth, Wales in 2009).