March 2, 2012

Hitting the Trails on Board a Segway

A few of our PR tribe enjoyed our forest segway experience, soon to be landing at another five Go Ape adventures. Laura tells her story. I’d wanted to try out Go Ape for years, so much so that when I started to date my boyfriend it was high on the list of things to do. When the opportunity came up to go to Swinley Forest with my colleagues, I jumped at the chance, much to his dismay (sorry, there are 28 courses, so plenty of other opportunities!) When I realised there were segways at the course too, my excitement levels rose to that of a five year old on Christmas morning.

I’d seen segways on city tours across the world, and always wanted to try one out. In Prague the tour guides bumble over cobbled old streets avoiding pedestrians, and in Rome the Vatican Police patrolled the fountains on Segways, which made the justice system seem a bit ‘Mr Bean on holiday’. Riding through the forest on a segway seemed a much better idea, with the beautiful scenery and tree-lined trails.

On arrival to Swinley forest, we were greeted by the friendly team who soon had us balancing on the segs. Helmets on, and a safety brief later, we were on the test trails where we started to get a feel for the segways. I needed a bit more help than most of the others, so had one of the staff supervising me before I was let loose with the rest of the group which was really helpful and put my mind at ease.

When we were told they would have a speed limit of 7 mph, I was a bit disappointed, as the speed demon in me was hoping to be zooming around the forest at around 30mph, but when we started to fly around the trails, I was grateful for the 7mph cap, as it was fast enough to make good speed and feel the wind through my hair! By the time I had got used to manoeuvring around the trees, it was almost time to go back – but not before the segs were boosted to 12mph for the ride home yippeeee!

My colleagues and I wanted to ride the segs back to the office, but unfortunately the motorways have some fairly different obstacles to a forest…. I’m already looking forward to going back again, and for Christmas 2012 a segway will be top of the list! Then I can enjoy forest segway every day of the week!