A slightly late report on Simons Stag event.
Nine of us met at Sherwood Pines activity area, and started with Segway. I’ve never done this before, and looked forward to it. We signed to confirm that we knew that this was a high risk activity, although it was not anywhere near as risky as some of the activities that I’ve been persuaded to perform over the years by my Scouting/Scraggy Crow mates over the years. Embarrassingly the form included a box for age, and there was a double-decade leap when it came to my entry. Kate’s Dad, Melv, took part, and between us we dragged up the average age significantly.
Each of us was introduced to our Segway, and after a couple of circuits practice in a safely fenced off area we were allowed out onto the forest tracks, busy with families, dog walkers and cyclists. Acceleration was by shifting weight onto your toes, slowing by leaning back on heels. We proceeded at a heady maximum speed of 12 mph – attempting to exceed this resulted in the “handlebar” moving back towards you, shifting the weight back which effectively limited the speed. I experienced this somewhat disconcerting manoeuvre a few times.
The group was led; we weren’t allowed out unaccompanied, but since this meant a pre-planned route experiencing fast(ish) wide smooth forest roads, and twisting bumpy narrow tracks that we might otherwise have missed, this was beneficial. I loved it, and the pre-booked hour was over all too quickly.
After a brief lunchbreak it was time for Go Ape. I’d seen the course, which didn’t look too bad, and was feeling quietly confident. And then it became clear that I had been looking at the junior course. Once again we signed to say we knew that we were about to embark on a risky venture, and we had a training session on the first of five individual stages high above the ground. The training basically involved demonstrating how we must always be clipped onto the safety wires by at least one of three karabiners. I’d done this karabiner stuff before, having been dragged up several rock faces by a safety rope, sweating and trembling, by my “mates”, but this was more complicated and involved colour co-ordination. Clip pulley to safety wire, release blue karabiner from previous safety wire, clip blue safety wire to pulley, release red karabiner from previous safety wire, clip red karabiner to next safety wire, and off you go, unless the next stage is a Tarzan swing, which then involved the green karabiner. No-one colour blind should try GoApe.
Each stage basically followed the same routine – climb a rope ladder to a platform around a tree trunk, and step off the platform onto various rope-bridge contraptions strung between the trees linking to the next platform (after processing the coloured karabiners in the correct order). There were about half a dozen bridges to each stage, some with suspended steps that had a habit of swinging away from your feet, some with tunnels of rope netting, some including a high level Tarzan swing across to a rope net, to be climbed to reach the next platform. At the end of each stage a lengthy zip wire delivered you back to ground level – despite my every effort I always arrived at the bottom going backwards.
Would I do it again? Yes, provided I was allowed to cheat as I did this time. Why rely on wobbly rope hand and foot holds when there are perfectly stable safety wires?
While we were all enjoying ourselves in the healthy outdoors, the “Hens” were decorating clay pots, concocting cocktails, and enjoyment Leicester’s “lively and vibrant night life”. Photos will appear once Chantal has mailed them to me.
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
