June 20, 2011

Go Ape Delamere Out and About.

So what floats our instructor’s boat? Of course they like to live life adventurously (it’s our motto!) so here’s a snippet of what they get up to when they’re not ensuring your adventures in the tree-tops run smoothly…

Hoping that this isn’t one of those “you had to be there moments”.  It involves me (Vikki), Jack and Clare (we all work for Go Ape in Delamere Forest) and our other halves, Adam, Emily and Mark enjoying an adventure on the water.

Setting the Scene. Now, before I started working at Go Ape, ‘adventure’ wasn’t a big part of my lifestyle and when I was younger my dream was to become an archaeologist, until I watched Jurassic Park and then that dream was demolished, no way was I going to be eaten by raptors for dinner. Pre-Go Ape my days would consist of the usual mundane routine: work, home, TV, bed.  That would be it, not that it’s a bad thing, it works for some people. But I had had enough and set out on a mission to change. There it was; jobs available at Go Ape Delamere.  I have done many great things, enjoyed adventures and trips that I wouldn’t even have thought of or bothered to do before. I’m going to tell you about our most recent one.

This is it. So we arrive and we are welcomed by ‘Guy’ from Wye Pursuits, who looks at all the gear we have and realises we’re not your everyday campers, he labelled us as ‘glampers’.  He was desperately trying to convince us not to take as much as the boats would be too heavy, but when he tried to tell Mark and Clare that they didn’t need their tent we decided to go against his judgement. We load the boats on the trailer then drive up the road to Hereford.

Once there, we unload the boats and carry them to the water, then watch as the boys (cue first comedy moment!) get them down the hill. Adam soon discovered that his DC’s did not have the grip that Jack’s North Face Hedgehogs did. I, of course, was wearing flip flops so stood well back and watched as Adam tried his best not to fall over whilst carrying a canoe!

Now all 3 boats are in the water. Jack and Emily are in, I’m in, Adam’s pushing the boat and I have to remind him he has to get in at some point and stop pushing, so Mark gives us a shove and then were all in. Hurrah! Since Adam has never been in a boat that doesn’t have an engine and a steering wheel, our first destination was straight into a tree.

Setting up camp. We paddle for about four hours and reach our first destination, a nice little campsite.  We got the boats out the water and prepare to set up camp. I’ll tell you, I have never been to a swankier camp site; the grass was neatly cut, we had drinking water… and Dyson hand dryers in the toilets! So, the tents are up, Emily and Jack have a pretty big tent, mine and Adam’s is a good size, and then I look at Mark and Clare’s, commenting: “It’s supposed to be a 2 man right?” (…It was pretty much the same size as a coffin). Anyway, food is cooked, then Jack realises he didn’t bring any mugs, so he puts his survival skills in place and ends up using a Heinz Spaghetti and Sausages tin can as a cup. Always thinking.

After a few games of cards we decide to hit the hay.  Then at 4am, a family of ducks decide to join us quacking away, not bothered that there are supposed to be 6 people sleeping. The joys of camping! Morning comes; we get up, demolish camp, pack the boats and then carry them back to the water. Believe me, a filled canoe is not light and we learned that having all the girls on one side is not a clever option… best to spread them out a bit!

Back on the water. It’s pretty peaceful, all you can hear is the splashing of the water, the coo of the birds and then me yelling at Adam as I’m convinced he’s not paddling! And we reach our second sleeping destination. Now I didn’t mention earlier about how to get the boats out of the water. The first campsite had a contraption with wheels which you put the boat on and pull it up and out, easy.  This one had a bit of tatt to get up the hill, no wheels, nothing. So it was a chance to show off our muscles. It was a case of one of us at the bottom, three at the top, then 3, 2, 1 and heave!  After that we have to carry them 100 yards away, full. Believe me; no one was looking forward to doing it again in the morning!

We make a fire, most are blinded by the smoke and we play charades, if anybody needs a charades buddy, Jack is the man for you, I’ve never seen Saving Private Ryan, but with his acting skills it’s like I have, whilst on mute.  So we all go to bed listening to the sweet sounds of drunken yobs and drift off into a freezing cold sleep.

Morning hits. We pack up again, lug the boats and then head back down the hill with the bit of tatt and on to the water.  After the luxury of the previous campsite where we enjoyed warm showers and Dyson hand dryers, at this campsite we had a portaloo!  I soon found out that portaloos don’t come with lights, so using them at night can be a bit difficult if you forget to take your trusty Petzl head torch.  You really do learn something new every day.

The final sprint. The last day of paddling consisted of about 6-7 hours.  It was back breaking.  We ventured through ‘Swan Alley’ then through a tornado of fly’s, my face was basically the license plate of the boat with all the bugs flying into it. So we got a sprint on, I even think Adam rowed a little!  Finally we reached the finish, unpacked the gear straight into the cars and headed home.

It was an eventful few days which we would definitely recommend to everyone and we will try and go back again in September for a longer trip. So even though working at Go Ape has brought adventure and fun into my life (and got me off the couch!). I still have those, leave me alone, I’m staying in my pyjamas all day long days.

Basically what I’m saying is, you don’t need to completely change your life, maybe just add a little excitement into it every now and then.