Flying High at Go Ape

This was, without a doubt, the best day out I have had in a long time. It was active, thrilling and fun. Everyone should go, unless you have a phobia of heights in which case stay well away!

In December, when London was feeling particularly grey, Mike and I decided that we would book a day out doing something different in the countryside. We had a quick Google and stumbled upon Go Ape. The website was green and full of people smiling and zip-wiring through trees. From what I could tell it was a giant adventure playground for adults - ideal. We saw that a new centre had opened in Battersea Park but, as we wanted to get out of London, we settled on Go Ape Alice Holt in Surrey.

On the morning of our adventure, the nerves started to kick in! I suddenly realised that being 14 metres up in the air, balancing on wires was a little bit dangerous. When we got there, there was no time to be nervous. We signed some forms, bought hats and gloves and had our safety briefing. I was very proud of being far better at working out how to clip my harness onto the safety wire than Mike! After a quick demonstration, we were off!

There were quite a few young couples starting at the same time as them and, as I was determined to be the best, I pushed myself quite hard. The hardest part actually was climbing up the rope ladder to begin the course. It was really wobbly and as I was nervous I kept making it worse! By the time I got up the adrenaline kicked in and I launched myself at every crossing, determined  not to be the slow one! We had to negotiate lots of different obstacles, such as wobbly wooden slats, stirrups and a set of Olympic rings! The best parts of the course were the Tarzan swings though. You have to clip yourself onto a dangling wire from above and then jump off a platform high up in the air! You swing through the trees and smash into netting on the other side. When you manage to catch hold of the netting, you need to climb up it and pull yourself onto the wooden platform on the other side. My arms were not used to this and the next day I couldn't move them at all! There were 5 different courses and you finished each one by zip-wiring down to the ground. The landing sites became progressively further away with the last one being 126 metres long!

It was an amazing day out and I will definitely be booking to visit a different Go Ape site soon!

Mike bracing for impact!