One Magazine’s Esther and her son conquered their nerves to try out Go Ape at Haldon Forest!
After hearing about the high ropes at Go Ape many moons ago, my son has been very keen to give it a go. Unfortunately for him, he had to wait to reach the 10 year old age requirement. And even when he did, it took us a year to get around to going! But finally the chance came to give it a go. As he was under 16, he had to be accompanied by an adult, so not-so-begrudgingly, I put myself forward with keen anticipation and a little trepidation!
We weren’t sure what to expect, but when we arrived at the office, we were warmly greeted by the team there which was a good start! There were forms to sign and then we were kitted out in harnesses and given a detailed explanation of how to use the clips on the harnesses, after which the safety rules and etiquette of the course were explained. There was even a small test course to give us a bit of practice. Then we were let loose!
There were 5 courses in total which you could just take your group around at your own speed. It was whilst we were waiting to go up the ladder for the first course that my poor son had a crisis of confidence and suddenly started getting nervous! But we pressed on nonetheless and once he got going, he thoroughly enjoyed himself. The courses started relatively easy and got gradually more challenging. Each course featured a variety of high ropes, crossings, walkways, tunnels, Tarzan swings and bridges. However, the part of the course we enjoyed the most was the zip-wires, one at the end of each course, including two that were 235m in length. The views out to the Teign Valley and Dartmoor were stunning and it was a wonderfully freeing feeling to be flying through the trees. There were plenty of signs to help to show you the best way to cross each crossing and tell you the level of difficulty, and the guys from Go Ape were always around on the ground to give advice and ensure we were safe. My son’s confidence grew with each new challenge he conquered.
We were amazed that the whole adventure took a good couple of hours, depending on your group size, which we felt was excellent value for money. We came home invigorated and tired from our adventure. It was definitely something we would love to do again.
Visit the website: Go Ape – Haldon
