The Bedgebury Tribe: Wild Warriors
The Bedgebury Go Ape Tribe decided to create a list of ‘adventure fun times for 2012’ and the best way to begin the season was of course with the Wild Warrior 2012: Peak District.
Leading up to the race we were feeling pretty confident, having thrown in a good few training sessions on our days off. However the night before, having enjoyed a very busy day at Bedgebury Go Ape we realised the clocks were going forward at midnight… Awesome. 10:30pm.. Bed time.
So, waking up at what was technically 4:30am, we jumped in the car, blasted the Disney CD and sang as loud as we possibly could while making the 3.5 hour journey North. Entertaining ourselves by waving at fellow early morning Sunday motorway drivers and flashing our cheesy grins.
When we finally arrived at Wild Warrior, we conveniently found that Tim’s name was not on the list, which Tristan and I swiftly corrected as we were certain Tim would have been heartbroken had he not taken part. Once we had our numbers, a few Go Gels in hand and having rammed a plate of pasta down our throats, it was time for us to concentrate as hard as our brains would allow us on the safety brief, which I can pretty much sum up with ‘You might die/drown/injure yourself’. . . But, with Katie Price sitting to our direct right, I spent the whole brief wondering if her camera man would lend us some tape to securely fasten our Go Pro camera to Tristan’s chest.
Safety brief over, and with Katie Price’s cameraman happy to oblige, Tim and I took this as an opportunity to make Tristan look as ridiculous as possible, while still having the ability to move his arms. Dancing our way to the start line, bellies filled with pasta, Go Gels somewhere to hand, go pro set to ‘record’, we put 100% effort and enthusiasm into the organised ‘group J’ warm up. After a ten second count down we started by making our way past the firing cannon and pink smoke into the first few obstacles. Once over these, we made some friends who were on their second lap and freely handed out some Go Ape motivational advice.
Having laughed our way through the first lap it was time to get serious…….. but us being us we continued to fall about with laughter causing an unnecessary burning sensation in our lungs, collecting sticks in our shoes as we went.
Halfway through the last lap, high-fiving, hugging and bringing happiness to every marshall we passed, we made it to the highlight of the day. With Tristan 5 metres ahead of Tim and I and having just crossed a lovely looking river, we were crawling up a muddy bank when we looked up just in time to see him falling flat on his face. The natural thing to do was laugh uncontrollably, causing us to ultimately join Tris on the floor. With all 3 of us slip-sliding into the next obstacle in absolute hysterics, we managed to somehow fall through the spider’s web of doom. At which point we heard the marshall shouting ‘you are the happiest people I have seen all day!’ while trying to make out what it was we were doing exactly. After having our spirits boosted even higher than they already were, we tackled the partially submerged tunnels and 5 degree water slide with ease, shouting out ‘come to Go Ape’ whenever possible and skipping over the finish line.
Smelling as bad as you could possibly imagine, we unknowingly finished with the respectful time of 1 hour and 11 minutes, rinsed ourselves down with a freezing cold hosepipe, shared 2 towels between 3 of us and having had a cheeky free massage on site. We did the decent thing and made our way to a busy restaurant before the long drive back home, filling our bellies with massive amounts of chicken and enough water to last a lifetime.
I believe it’s safe to say that planning for the next adventure has already commenced and another blog will be making it’s way to you within the coming months.
With Love Amy, Tim, Tris and the rest of the Bedgebury Tribe.
