Happy New Year folks!

We kick started the new year with our first Go Ape experience and what a blast it was too!

To celebrate Dec’s birthday on 2nd Jan I booked us in for the Treetop Adventure Challenge at Temple Newsam.

For those of you who have never heard of Go Ape. It is a popular course of zip lines, obstacles and all sorts built up in the trees. Kind of like a children’s playground but one that adults can enjoy too. It’s based all over the UK with various different sites all differing in some way. I hear some have amazing views but we went with our local – Temple Newsam in Leeds.

Never done Go Ape before but I’ve heard everyone rave about it. If you’ve got that thrill seeking personality that longs for a bit of adreneline pumping adventure then this is the place for you!

It was very similar to the Bear Grylls experience in Birmingham that I mentioned in my earlier post here. But given that we loved that experience it was a no brainer that we should do more activities just like that!

The course was really fun and offered a lot of variety in obstacles. We started with a number of different crossings and they got more difficult as you went along.

I chickened out and avoided the super hard ones because my nerves always get the better of me! But in the end I managed even the tough ones (not without difficulty though). Pulling your own weight across netting suspended in the air was a killer!

The course shows you how best to tackle an obstacle but some of them are simply a case of throwing yourself off a high platform like Tarzan and hoping that you reach the safety net at the end!

Zip lining through the trees may look terrifying on the first try but it becomes like 2nd nature after so many times. You also get pretty used to landing on your bum at the end!

Finally for the last part of the course, I experienced my first ever bungee-jump-like activity. It was a platform you had to walk off and fall through the air until it sprung you back up. I surprised myself at how much my fear took over standing on the edge of this! I genuinely didn’t think I’d be able to do it. But once it started raining I threw myself off the top so I could swiftly make my way back to the car. After all, it was the quickest way down!

Of course Dec followed me down 2 seconds later because he doesn’t mess around with fear, he just gets on with it!

A great start to 2022 and hopefully a year of more adventure to come! Let’s hope we can ‘go ape’ for the rest of the year!