The Only Way Is (30 Feet) Up (Go Ape Delamare Forest)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Go Ape Delamare Forest
Date:	23/08/06 (1358 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A thrill like no other

Disadvantages: You need to have a certain level of fitness to make it all the way through

I’ve done some mad/bad/silly things in my time (jungle surfing, white-water rafting, trapeezing, canyoning, abseiling down slippery, steep waterfalls) but these all happened in the hot, sunny place that is Australia, a world away from here, so I sometimes forget I can be just as mad/bad/silly in my own back garden if I want to be. However thanks to a company called Go Ape that offers ‘high wire forest adventures’ in 8 locations throughout England, we recently spent 3 hours at their base in Delamere Forest, Cheshire, flying through the treetops in the rain, getting filthily muddy and thoroughly enjoying ourselves in what is essentially a glorified ropes adventure course high up in the air.

Delamere is vaguely near Warrington, or at least that’s the direction you head when driving there from Manchester. However it’s a good 20 minutes drive from the motorway junction, and is not that well signposted. Add to this the inability of Go Ape or the wonder that is Google to supply me with a correct destination postcode, and you find two twenty something gals driving round the back streets of little Britain early one Saturday morning. Perhaps easier, and maybe even quicker, would have been to take the train as there is a station a few hundred meters from the Go Ape cabin.

We had pre-booked our mid-morning, weekend slot, but the group sizes were all different and I think they would have squeezed in a few more parties if they’d come along and asked. For more than 4 or 6 of you I’d say you should definitely book earlier, but for just a couple of people I reckon they’d be able to fit you in most days. We checked in at the cabin, signed away our lives (something I’ve not done since Australia, though it was a biweekly occurrence over there), read some safety briefs and waited for our talk to begin. Each session starts with a 10 – 15 minute safety overview conducted on ground level, where you kit up and practice clipping and unclipping your safety catches. The reason they do this so thoroughly is that after course 1 (of a total 5) you’re on your own – no instructor or staff member comes with you, so it’s your own responsibility to make sure you’re safe. This is also the reason children, though allowed, are restricted in number – the exact specifications are on the website but when we went any one adult could only supervise a maximum of 2 under 16s, plus up to 3 teenagers aged 16 or 17. Personally I think even that is a lot, and I wouldn’t want to be in charge of anyone’s safety but my own up there, but I suppose it’s different if they’re your own kids.

After our safety brief we were ready to rock and roll and were soon sailing through the beginners course. That complete, we were let loose on the whole course. You make your way through this at your own pace but can only really go as fast as the person ahead of you unless they need or want to take a breather. If you are at all anxious or concerned I would definitely recommend taking time out between each of the courses so you don’t feel rushed and start to panic.

The courses all had the same basic layout. They start with a rope ladder to climb, followed by some sort of tightrope to make your way across. There are a few more obstacles and then to finish there’s a long zip wire that you sail down to the next course. On the later courses there are 2 different options where you can take the easier or harder obstacle courses depending on what sort of mood you’re in – I did a mix of these as I went round depending on what I liked the look of most, sometimes taking the easy way out and sometimes getting even more out of my comfort zone with the ‘black belt’ version. The sort of obstacles we encountered break down into a few main categories:

- walking

you are strapped in to a wire above your head but are basically meant to walk / hop / spring along from swinging bough to swinging bough, or from short beam to short beam, or from rope loop to rope loop or giant slab of wood to giant slab of wood. The size of these and the distance between them differs but I never really struggle with my little legs although since they do like to move and swing around a lot I was halfway into splits a few times since my legs seem to favour this over having to use their muscles to keep me upright.

- hurtling

you launch yourself from a watch tower towards a big rope net, fly through the air, catch hold and then pull yourself over to the edge. If you miss the momentum will keep you swinging back and forth for a while, but the actual motion of pulling yourself up is what I found hardest as the harnesses are tight and it sometimes felt like there wasn’t enough ‘give’.

- crawling

you literally creep and crawl through a tunnel made of wood or wire to the next safety platform. This is fun and quite a bit like the sort of thing they have in places like Jungle Jims at Blackpool Tower.

- scrambling

you scramble your way along some netting or a long rope from one side to another. Sounds simple, but remember this can be up to 30 feet in the air, and it can take more upper body strength that you would think. In fact the only bit of me that ached the next day was my chest muscles from doing this.


If you keep going at a steady pace as we did, you can complete the whole experience in about 3 hours which makes it good value for the price (£20 per adult).

The courses are supposedly very good for overcoming fears of heights, but I’m not sure I’d have the nerve if I was really that scared. I’m quite used to being off the ground (trampolines, trapezes, cathedral towers, aeroplanes) but even I was shaking a bit at the first obstacle when I realised I had to step out onto a moving, wobbly wooden step, and then onto another and another. However looking straight ahead helps, as does remembering that you can’t go back the way you’ve come most of the time so the only way is, well, onward and upward to the end of that course. My favourite bits were the zip wires and thinking of those to come kept me going a couple of times.

Though at first I was sceptical about going sans-instructor you quickly realise that this is a very safe set-up, and as an individual going round the course you only have to remember a few things (like clipping the longer safety wire to the tree first, unclipping it last and making sure the short and long clips faced back to back). Never once did I see anyone fall or lose their footing, but I felt confident that doing so wouldn’t hurt and you’d simply be caught by the safety wires.

Delamere is a nice course though I suspect the others dotted around the country are very similar. In addition to Go Ape our destination offered a café, shop, toilets and plenty of walks and cycle paths to enjoy, though we were soaked to the skin after our adventure so simply wanted to dry off and head back. The courses only close in extreme weather conditions – thunder and lightening, and strong storms – so a little (or lot of) rain didn’t warrant closing the course when we went.


Recommendations:

- wear strong footwear with a good grip (wooden wobbly bridges are iffy at the best of times, but when 30 ft in the air and sopping wet you need all the help you can get)
- a light waterproof jacket keeps off wind and rain
- an empty bladder is essential (you have to struggle in and our of your harness otherwise and get it rechecked before you can recommence the course)
- take a camera to prove you were there – strap it on and it’s fine to take along with you
- a chocolate fountain waiting at home as reward worked wonders for us
- Finally, GO FOR IT – it was, on reflection, a really fun experience (even if I wouldn’t have said that while actually mid-way round the course). The staff were professional but relaxed, the course was well maintained, the views were stunning and the adrenaline rush on completion is hard to beat.


Go Ape @ Delamere Forest

http://www.goape.co.uk/Site.asp?Site=6

Summary: A completely different day out, perfect for groups of friends looking for a challenge