ACTIVE | A Day of Adventure at Go Ape Delamere Forest, Cheshire
Where did we go?
Saturday 18th February 2017
Tree Top Adventure – Gorilla £33 per adult
Go Ape Delamere Forest, Cheshire
Visit the Go Ape Website
4 Go Ape in Delamere Forest…
With winter seeming to drag on, the thought of getting to spend some quality family time outdoors is even more appealing than usual. My morning wakeup call comes from Lolly the Ragdoll cat, who seems to enjoy waking me up well before my actual alarm goes off by sitting on my face. I’m bouncing and full of energy, looking forward to the day and our family Tree Top Adventure.
For someone with a lifelong fear of heights, Go Ape might not seem like the most rational choice as far as fun weekend activities go
For someone with a lifelong fear of heights, Go Ape might not seem like the most rational choice as far as fun weekend activities go, but having spent the last few months tackling my fear head on (we now climb regularly as a family) it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while.
I chose Go Ape at Delamere Forest in Cheshire as it’s the closest location to us, but with 61 sites all over the UK we had plenty of options. We head out on a dull but dry February morning and make it to Delamere forest well in advance of our 9:30am start time.
A short walk from the pay and display carpark (£6 to park all day), and we arrive at the Go Ape cabin. We’re greeted by smiling faces, given a safety briefing, and our harnesses are fitted by instructor, Alice.
We head out into the forest, making our way to the first of five stages. The first is thankfully very close to the ground and gives us the chance to practice clipping ourselves onto the safety lines. Despite the first obstacle being a tiny Amazon bridge only a metre or two off the ground, as I edge my way across, I’m frankly terrified.
I arrive at the next platform shaking as my fear of heights takes hold and tells me I should probably not attempt to go any further. Alice shouts up to ask me if I’m ok, “yeah fine” I shout down, not really believing it, but make the decision I’d best crack on, and after my first zip wire, I start to relax a little and begin to feel like I’m having fun.
The more obstacles we cross, the more we ease into it, and there are smiles all around as we get used to being up so high and make our way around the course.
As we get to stage four the sunshine breaks through the clouds, and we’re chatting animatedly, all of us having fun. Some of the crossings are more challenging than others, and I really don’t enjoy the cargo net’s (strong grip needed, difficult with arthritic fingers).
As we zoom down the long final zip wire we all agree that we’ve had a blast and decide that the Go Ape Zip Trekking adventure at Grizedale should definitely be next on our list for later in the year.
Go Ape provide a number of different adventures (some are location dependant), including their classic Tree Top Adventure that we did, which involves tree crossings, tunnels, zip wires and high ropes.
As well as the classic Tree Top Adventure, and junior version, some sites offer off-road Segway Adventures and the rather epic-looking Zip Trek Adventure – you can find your nearest Go Ape location here.
A big thank you to GoApe who invited us for a day out.
From open water swimming, snowboarding and kayaking to hill walks and meditation, Shell shares her travels and microadventures here on the blog and in various publications she's written for, Shell has a particular interest in promoting wellbeing and the many benefits of nature therapy.
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Had an amazing day, Those Zipwires are so much fun!
Agree, it was loads of fun, dispite me being terrifed at the beginning! Let’s do the zip trekking one soon 🙂
I love Go Ape (and similar parks) they are great fun. My first time I went in Hungary where you’d be able to go down a really long way on ziplines. Unfortunately the crashpads on the trees on the other side were sometimes not positioned well at all which made for a hard landing!
Wow sounds fantastic…apart from the hard landings! We’re looking at going to Zip World in north Wales next to try the worlds longer zip wire 😀
That looks great, we are definitely going to have to give Go Ape a try-at least once! Looks like you all had a blast 🙂
After I got over my terror of being up high and stopped feeling so wobbly and sick, I had fun. The chaps seemed to have no fear at all so I told myself to woman-up 😀 When your little one is a bit older, they do Go Ape Junior which is a bit less terrifying 😀