It's been a long time since I last felt the discomfort of peer pressure. And yet here I am, 10 metres up in the trees, about to jump across a gap several metres wide into a cargo net.
I could've taken the easy route at this point but because four of my closest friends have all just done it, and are now watching me with twinkling eyes and massive grins, I have no real choice but to leap. So I swallow my fears, lunge none-too-gracefully forwards and suddenly I'm swinging through the air and screeching like a loon. This is Go Ape in Wendover Woods, Buckinghamshire – and boy is it fun.
Pre-Tarzan-moment, we've already spent a couple of hours clambering and cavorting through the trees. I've stared down at the fern-clad forest floor (or rather tried not to) as my foot sought its next wooden slat/swinging pole/metal hoop, hugged the trunks of many a Scots pine in relief at another successful crossing, and whizzed down zip lines so fast and fun they make us all desperate to get back up there and do it again – fear or no fear.
We've faced it all together. Each time panic threatened to strike, my gung-ho friend Richard hilariously came a cropper, I heard Vicky or Pete whooping through the trees, or my boyfriend, Doug, pointed out another bucolic pine-clad view. Having all had our moments of anxiety, there's a real sense of shared achievement and we excitedly debrief all the way to the Shoulder of Mutton pub for lunch. Large grins all round.
There are 26 Go Ape courses across the UK, each one set in beautiful British woodland and no two are exactly the same. Until 5 September Go Ape is offering you the chance to get your gang together for less. Book for four and the fifth participant goes free. You can also enter a competition to win one of 10 family tickets, worth £100.
Enter the competition here.
