Going Ape at Matfen.

While I normally only blog about technical stuff, I thought I’d make a little exception for this once. Dan Howarth invite Lucinda and I to join him, his girlfriend Lindsey and 12 of their friends for a session at the newly opened GoApe in Matfen.

GoApe, an outdoor pursuits company, set up in 2001 by Rebecca and Tristram Mayhew, after they were inspired by a tree-top adventure course in France. GoApe working with the Forestry Commission, now operate twenty two sites throughout the UK. The courses described as high wire adventure courses, consist of trails through the forests linking tree top platforms with rope ladders, zip-lines, rope bridges, trapezes and swings.

I’d heard about the GoApe course at Grizedale Forest Park, but  hadn’t managed to get around to. getting over there. So I was thrilled to discover that we now had our very own, at Matfen. The course opened on 22nd May and is open daily, until 31st October (closed Tuesdays term time).

While it still needed a little work, (the paths are due to be gravelled next week, and the toilets are currently portaloos), all the courses are open, the French install team having done a fantastic job.

According to their website, GoApe’s motto is “creating adventures, encouraging others to live life more adventurously” and they appear to be very good at doing just that. Our instructor for the day was John. After checking he’d fastened up our harnesses correctly, he ran us through a 20 minute training programme, showing us the state of the art self belay equipment, using simple colour coding and phrases like ‘red loves a tree’ to remind us that the red karabina should go onto the red tree side lines as soon as you reach a platform. Once John had seen us all use the equipment safely, we were allowed to explore the various trails in our own time, choosing the different grades of route (like sking the trails are graded by difficulty from green to black). Most of our group had  never done anything like this before and some didn’t have much of a head for heights, but we worked as a team and help each other out, and i’m pleased to say that everyone in our group, managed to get around the first trail.

The course is suitable for adults and children over 10. Its may be slightly on the pricey side at £25 for Gorillas (over 18′s) and £20 for Baboons (10-18 year olds), but it was a fantastic experience, that i would do again! (in fact i’m already thinking who’s coming up to visit, and when can we go again) It would also be ideal for parties, and corporate team building exercises (they’re even in the process of building a special cabin for groups).