Go Ape!

For my birthday this year I decided to do something a little different and picked Go Ape to celebrate my twenty-something birthday. Luckily, one has just opened at Trent Park, which is about a 10 minute walk from Cockfosters so it was easy enough for us to get to. (They do have them all over the country though.)

Go Ape is basically a forest adventure where you swing in tress, go over bridges and zoom down zip wires. We were booked in for the very early 9am slot but, as it takes 2-3 hours to complete, it's actually a good time to go as that way you don't get stuck behind other users.

They say that it's a lot more fun when it's wet and muddy - I can't really comment on that having never done it in the sun - but this April's hideous weather meant we certainly got wet and muddy! At the start of the course it was fine but by the time we got to the last section you tended to notice the conditions more, possibly because you're higher up and starting to feel tired from all the monkeying (sorry) around. 

I have to confess, even though I'm not scared of heights, I was a little apprehensive at first. I had, I suspect, the usual panic of: Will this harness actually support me and stop me from crashing down to my death? You do get trained on the ground though and do a mini course which is no higher than 1.5m. Let's face it, if you fell off at this point you won't do much damage to yourself. It's a great way though to see that if you step off the platform that you will not fall to the ground because your harness does work!

When climbing up the rope ladders at the start you are attached three times and when on the bridges and zip wires you are are always attached twice, as long as you have followed their safety system. All the way round you're never unattached, so you're not going to plummet to the ground. At the start we were all quite slow at attaching our cables but by the end of the five sections we were dab hands at it.

The worst bit for me was climbing the cargo nets - the one on its own and when you do the gorilla rope jump into the cargo net and then have to climb up a cargo net to get to the platform. I know they let ten year old children do this but I seriously struggled to climb up and across the cargo net with my shocking lack of strength!

There was also a really horrible twisty bridge towards the end and a tunnel you had to crawl through which killed all our knees (and had bird poo in it - I don't know, the great outdoors huh! ;p) but, all-in-all, it was great fun overcoming the obstacles and zooming down the zip wires, including a very awesome Marty McFly style skateboard zip wire.

Go Ape is a challenge but at the same time it's good fun and you push yourself being with your "tribe", even when it's raining and muddy. One thing I would recommend, especially if the weather is less than fab, is to take gloves as you use your hands a lot and they will start to hurt! 

At a cost of £30 for adults, which gets you 2-3 hours of fun, it's definitely worth doing and I had an enjoyable, yet different, birthday celebration there. I am aching a bit today though - maybe getting you to stretch out as part of your safety training could be an idea? Despite the aches though, I'd definitely go again if someone invited me. {^_^}

Has anyone been to Go Ape? If you haven't, would you? x

4 comments

  1. I think i would enjoy this. I'm not a massive fan of heights, but I have always loved the idea of assault courses and things like that, and this makes me think a bit of this! Glad you had fun and happy belated birthday!x

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  2. Chris really wants to do the one local to here in Bedford but it's kind of expensive - I am thinking though I'll take him for his birthday - I might pay for him and Our Sidekick to go and then read in the shade or something while they get on with it!

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  3. I did it with friends for my birthday last year and absolutely adored it. I'm very scared of heights, so I was very proud of myself for making it round. But I liked it so much, I went back with my siblings when they were in the UK in the summer.
    Would go back for a third go, too! :)

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  4. Definitely good fun and worth doing, even when it's not the most pleasant weather like we had that day - definitely keen to go again in the sunshine! :) x

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