Earlier this month I was asked by Simplyhealth to take part in a fitness challenge. They wanted to know that by me doing some sort of 'fun' activity what sort of calories could I burn, and how many steps would I perhaps end up doing? I could chose any kind of local activity to do such as going to laser quest, or trying out an escape room, but having taken part in Go Ape at Sherwood Pines years ago, I decided I wanted to try it out again ...but at Woburn Safari Park.
Nick was coming with me after I insisted he take the day off for some husband and wife bonding. Obviously explaining we were off to jump about in the tree and pretend to be monkeys, made the idea of being stuck with me for the day, (and my entourage of cameras!) far more easier to cope with! The weather was luckily on our side so this was going to make this Go Ape experience far more enjoyable, as last time it chucked it down all day and we went in school holidays... so it was a little more stressful!
It was so good to get out of the house and just have a bit of a giggle for once. We do lots of cycling and running between us both, but often we're having to consciously think about training whereas this was having fun through being active. That is something I often forget to do!
We had a training session with the Go Ape team Woburn Park team before becoming jungle monkeys and heading up to the tree tops. I'd actually forgotten how high up you went and how hard some of the challenges were. Luckily you're never unclipped from the wires so if you did miss a step you would be safe due to your harness. My inner geek emerged half way round as I realised it was May 4th, (aka Star Wars day) when we did this, and I couldn't help but feel like I was an Ewok in the forests of Endor!
The time flew whilst doing this. I completely forgot that I'm terrible at zip wiring down anything! No matter how hard I tried I'd start out facing where I was going, but would always end up bum first. To say I was mucky is an understatement! Both Nick and I also forgot about the jump towards the end into the rope net - yeah don't jump off the ledge as you're stomach drops! I squealed like a girl at that point!
The tasks themselves were tough and tested you in a number of ways; climbing ladders, balancing across beams and of course going full pelt down a zip wire line!
Honestly I forgot we were even possibly doing any sort of exercise, so when I checked my FitBit after I was a bit shocked at how much we'd been moving. In the end we did over 10k steps which was pretty awesome, but do take into account that this number is also me leaving the house to the car, then from the car to Go Ape. Even so that's not bad to say I hadn't really given how many steps or calories I was burning much thought.
I'm so impressed - maybe I need to do Go Ape everyday?! That would be fun wouldn't it! Just to clarify the screen grabs show what our day panned out to be in the end. We did Go Ape and then decided to take advantage of the fact we were also at a Safari Park and decided to spend the day checking out all the animals!
