Wildlife oasis

Despite my anxious family fretting to unpack after a long car journey, there was absolutely no doubt this lady was definitely not for turning.

Studiously avoiding her regal, penetrating gaze, we meekly entered our luxury holiday retreat by another door.

Yes, a female blackbird, particularly when she is nesting with three feisty young chicks, is simply not to be disturbed.

But in reality, this is just a small part of the unique charm of a break at Center Parcs: a holiday where mere mortals find themselves sidelined by the simple pleasure of sharing nature's habitat with fascinating wildlife.

And the feathered squatters, who had cheekily built their scrappy nest on top of an electric junction box which operated the villa's sauna, proved that it really is possible to live in curious harmony.

Every day, through the large picture windows, we watched as attentive Ma and Pa Blackbird operated a smooth shuttle into the forest, returning with food for their hungry brood.

Perhaps this is one of Center Parcs most beguiling secrets. Holidaymakers, myself included, arrive stressed out but determined to fulfil their pre-conceived ideas that just melt into the soporific, lush layers of greenery and high trees. Indolence wins hands down.

I'd planned to race off on my hired bicycle, pushing down country paths drinking in the intoxicating greenery. For the uneducated, cars remain firmly in the car park until it's time to pack up and leave.

I had visions of hearing the thrum of the tense bowstring as I unleashed an arrow at an archery target. Or taking part in a host of other bracing, outdoor activities. Maybe even a crafty game of ten-pin bowling?

But it was all to remain a blissful dream. Instead, I spent the first couple of days of my week-long break in a slightly mummified, horizontal state of total el-collapso', disengaging from the real world in this leafy, untrammelled cocoon.

When I did eventually lever myself into the horizontal, there was the issue of actually leaving the villa itself. Built less than a year ago, and still with a very new feel, my three-bedroom sliver of paradise came with three bedrooms, a full equipped kitchen, two en-suite bathrooms and a sauna.

In the comfortably carpeted lounge, there was even a corner fireplace (with special eco-friendly logs for cold days), But if you believed the surrounding forest was a tranquil, silent place - forget it.

It was almost as if the local wildlife had decided to put on a show just to entertain us. First a curious pair of swans, a line of fluffy grey cygnets in tow, arched their way to our villa, tapping on the windows demanding attention.

Then, with a raspy scamper, a team of grey squirrels descended on our picnic table to clear crumbs faster than any vacuum cleaner.

There are loudly quacking mallards punting their way across the streams. Oh, and did I forget to mention the frogs? Yes, they happily bounced their way across our back lawn and vanished in a nearby dell.

And, of course, there were other holiday-makers too, of the human kind living and sharing these joys in the Sherwood Forest Holiday Village: more than 3,000 of them.

But the parc, and more to the point its stylish accommodation, is laid out in such a clever way, that you only normally see the odd, silently moving clusters of cycling families from your villa.

That is until you venture to the heart of the village with its shops, excellent restaurants and supermarket.

Steel yourself for entry to Designer City UK. Families decked top to toe in the latest fashion wear, including £100 trainers and streamlined cycle crash hats. The very best of high street chic in sports and casual wear. Holiday dressing here is a serious business.

As a benchmark, take a peep in the car parks: none of your clapped out bangers. But beefy four-wheel drives sitting haughtily alongside estate cars and expensive saloons. This truly is the haven of Middle Britain.

It is also the land where bicycles go literally - in every direction, with every conceivable size and shape of rider.

There are the cool dudes flashing along the byways as if they were racing in the Tour de France. The terrified and timid, wobbling slowly across everyone's path, are completely oblivious to the rules of the road or the mild chaos they caused to other riders.

Then there are scores of visitors like me: overweight, muscles more used to lifting a pint of the falling down lotion, than navigating forest lanes.

Yet despite being saddle-sore (I refused to use a specially inflatable seat cover printed with Dennis the Menace's face) and walking like John Wayne, I actually started to enjoy my regular daily perambulations.

I trundled off to the Country Club for a nourishing cup of hot chocolate and a cookie the size of a small dinner plate (£2.50 the lot). Sometimes I parked up near the man-made lake to watch the kiddies launch themselves in yacht and canoe training from the specially-constructed sandy beach.

And I even devised my own system of identifying my cycle from the hundreds of others in the discreet cycle parking areas. I reversed my bike into the bay making it easy to spot.

Later, dining in the park's elegant curry restaurant, I found it easy to understand why Center Parcs claims a year-round occupancy of more than 90 per cent. They give people as little or as much to do as they want.

You can slob out or limber up. The choice is very much yours.

But most of all, this special time-out offers a chance to take a deep breath and stand back from a mad, mad world with your partner, friends or family.

My happiest hours were spent in the very heart of the forest under dark trees, with the help of one of the nature wardens, identifying jays, tree creepers - distinguished by their needle-like beaks - and the bright plumage of the greater spotted woodpecker.

But then, through the silence, came the eerie wail of a departing female guest: I don't want to go back to civilisation' I agreed and I still wonder what the next guests at Villa 905 made of the squatters.

Ken Bennett and family stayed as guests of Center Parcs at Sherwood Forest Holiday Village, Nottinghamshire. For information on short breaks or longer, call Center Parcs on: 08705-200-300. Or visit its website: www.centerparcs.co.uk.