REVIEW: Go Ape! Course & Clothing (YB)

I was given the opportunity to do a review for Go Ape! of both their course and their new clothing range.

Now, I'm no good with heights, so instead, I got Paul (hubby) and David (son) to actually do the course and picked clothing for them to review as what better way to taste their durability than for them to wear them on the course, right? Paul got a t-shirt and David got a hoodie.

Boys Go Ape Hoodie - costs just £20

Mens Plank Charcoal Tee - costs just £8 at the moment (normally £18)

Their clothing is very good quality - you can visibly tell they are made well. They have a great range of clothing for men, women and kids and also a great range of accessories too.  You can see the full range and order online at http://shop.goape.co.uk/.

Paul and David went along to the Delamere, Cheshire Go Ape! course on Saturday 17th November. I wasn't 100% sure if David would like it or not, but apparently after some initial reluctance, he got on with it and enjoyed it so much he wants to go back!

Here is Paul's review of the actual Go Ape! course:

“I took my 10 year old son, David, to the Go Ape Tree Top Adventure. After an almost disastrous cancelled train on the way. We eventually arrived at Go Ape in Delamere, one of their 28 locations in the UK. Children are allowed as long as they are 10 years old or over and at least 1.4m. There is a maximum weight limit of 20.5 stone. When you book a session you will be with up to 14 other participants.

After signing a short form about being responsible for David on the way around the course we were all given a harness. They were dead easy to put on and the staff helped everyone and checked they were all put on safely. The harness was relatively comfortable to wear. They were able to store my bag while we were going around the course as it would have been in the way.

Before you get started on the main course there is a short opportunity to see how the parts of your harness work. Then there is a very scaled down version of the types of obstacles you will encounter. There are 3 things on the harness; 2 carabiners, which are clips which climbers use, and a zipline pulley. They were all easy to do and after doing it a couple of times you can easily do it one handed - which is good if you are up a tree and holding on tight!

The course is made up a several parts. Each part has a ladder to initally get up into the trees followed by a series of obstacles. The course is entirely safe as you are constantly connected to a safety line. Even the ladders have a safety system whereby if you were to slip you would not fall.

Clipping and unclipping between each obstacle was a little tedious but we soon got used to it and it became automatic. The obstacles themselves varied between things like wooden platforms to balance across, ropes to pull yourselve along with, a tunnel to climb through, a 'Tarzan' style rope swing. At the end of each section you attach your pulley to a zipline and let gravity get you to the ground!

I was worried that David may have 'chickened' out of certain things but I was very impressed that he gave everything a go. It would have been impossible to avoid one individual obstacle most of the time as when you get into the trees, the course is fairly linear and you have to get to the zipline at the end. There were a couple of times that you could choose one route or another.

Between each section of the course there is a short walk to the next bit. The sections are easy to find by following the arrows. As carrying stuff on the course would be impractical there is water available before each ladder.

I loved the whole experience, I am not too bothered by heights, I don't imagine that it'd be much fun if you are bothered by them. David is usually not so keen on heights but he did all the obstacles, he took a bit of encouragement on the first couple but after that he just got on and did it all and seemed to enjoy it very much. It was suprising how safe I felt half way up a tree. Mostly I didn't even feel the need to hold on to anything.

My favourite thing on the whole course was the really big zipline at the very end. It was a bit higher than the others and quite a bit longer. You built up loads of speed and it was great!

If we were going again I think I would wear a different coat, probably a 'hoodie' or similar as I found my coat got in the way of the the safety harness. 

As well as the Tree Top Adventure they also do several other activities:
- Forest Segway is an hour of driving an all-terrain Segway through a forest.
- Forest Biking is exactly what it sounds like, cycling along trails through the forest.
- Tree Top Junior is for children aged 6 to 12 years old. Adults can either join their children or let them get on with it by themselves. It has the added advantage that the younger kids don't have to attach and detach their safety lines between obstacles.
- Night Time Forest Segway is just like regular forest segway but, as if that isn't exciting enough, it's done in the dark!”

And this is David's review of the Go Ape! course:

“When me and my dad went to Go Ape I found it really fun, and most of the equipment was fairly easy to use.

I found Go Ape quite fun because I was just about the right height but maybe being taller had some advantages.

Here are my opinions on each of the activities:

Zip Line: At first on the bigger Zip Lines I was a bit afraid but when I finally gave it a go it was really fun.

Trapeze: I loved this because you had to stay on the beam line without falling off because it was hard to get back up, luckily I managed to not fall on any parts of the course.”

Visit the Go Ape! website for more details on their adventures and locations - http://goape.co.uk/.