Today was the day for our delayed ziplining adventure. We were scheduled several weeks ago but the weather decided to dump massive amounts of rain on the area at the time.
Today, on the other hand, was near perfect. Sunny, warm, a little breeze. A great day for going ziplining.
We started off by meeting our guides – Genevive, Trevor and George. Genevie was a trainee, and got to handle the initial contact with us. She also went through getting all the safety gear on us, with help from Trevor. George was the last to join the group, and as he was the leader, he’s allowed to make a late entrance.
Once we were geared up, we took a van to the top of the course. There we got our safety lecture on how not to die while rolling along a steel cable in a harness. More importantly, there were many instructions on how not to get injured on the course.
With all that done, it was on to the ziplines. My buddy Gilly went with me, being a late celebration of his birthday. There were six people in our group, which I feel about the right number. Aside from Gilly and I, we had a mother and daughter team, and a grandfather and his granddaughter.
We started out on the short line, which they call Baby Bear. Not too long, not too fast, just right. We all made it through just fine. The excitement started to build at that point. Everyone got over the initial fear / concerns about stepping off a platform into the air and trusting that you’d make it through OK. The steel cables they use are the same strength as the ones used to tie aircraft down on ships at sea and an support twenty-six thousand (26,000) pounds. I’m fairly certain all nine of us in the group didn’t weigh that much so it was highly unlikely the cables would snap.
We had fun doing ‘trust leans’ on the platforms as we waited for everyone to make it along the line. The harness tethers were just long enough that you could put your feet at the edge of the platform and lean backwards, out over the edge. It was a little scary to begin with but we got more chill about it as we went along.
The second line was also fairly tame. A little longer than the first. Still good for getting used to things. They suggested screaming at the top of your lungs to see if anyone back at the base camp could hear you. I chose a line from the movie Nate and Hayes as they are ziplining down to their getaway boat and Hayes (played by Tommy Lee Jones) screams ‘God have merrrrccy!’ Genevive said mine was a 7.5 out of 10. Parker, the granddaughter, had the best one.
The third line was the highest of the course, being one hundred feet (100 ft.) (~30 meters) off the ground. You wouldn’t know it as you are surrounded by trees and vegetation. They had a strange device hanging next to the landing platform. Trevor explaied that was their emergecy weather evacuation system. If there was lightening in the area or high winds, they would lower everyone to ground level and hike back to the spot the van dropped us off. Seeing as how the ground was 100 feet below us, and there were no visible signs of a trail, I’m wondering just how we were supposed to hike back to the van dropoff point?
To get to the fourth line we had to cross a rope suspension bridge. Very bouncy and gettig across was tricky, but fun. The fourth line was the longest yet. By now, everyone was getting into the groove of things and ziplining like pros.
Then we got to the last line. The Big Kahuna. It was longer than the other four lines combined. It wasn’t as high as the third line but it looked like it as it went over an open field. Trevor said it was possible to reach speeds of thirty-five miles per hour (35 mph) (56 kph). They have an automatic breaking system wich slows you down at the end of the line. The impact from that on the previous lines wasn’t too bad, but they said to expect a harder imapact on this one.
Looking at the the length of the line, and seeing the speed Trevor reached when he went first (so he could ‘catch’ us) was intimidating. We could barely make out Trevor at the other end. My mind said “This was a mistake. Why are you doing this again?” I ended up being the first to go across.
I got in position on the launching block, grabbed the handles on the roller bar, and stepped off. I’ll tell you – that was both terrifying and exhilarating. It certainly seemed fast. At the end I hit the braking system and yes, you could feel a more definite impact. It was both much longer than I expected and over too quickly.
The final stage of the tour had us 70 feet in the air at the top of the ropes course. Here we had a choice – we could go down the ‘freefall’ or take the ‘Mary Poppins’ approach to get down to the ground. The Freefall basically lets you plummet to the ground and at the end it slows you down for a low impact landing. The Mary Poppins route does the same thing, but slower. Gilly took the Freefall (I think he had the most fun on that part of the tour). I decided to not risk throwing up from the sudden drop and took the Mary Poppins route.
In all, it was tons of fun. I think I’d do it again. Gilly had a good time too. At some point I want to go back and do the ropes course. The idea of playing around on a giant set of monkey bars delights my inner eight year-old.
If you get the chance, go ziplining, my Hordeling. It can be scary at first, but by the end, you’ll enjoy it.
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