Venue: Go Ape at the Sherwood Pines forest park near Mansfield.

It involved rope ladders, swinging from trees into nets, walking across wobbly bridges, sometimes proper rope bridges, sometimes logs suspended from wires. I managed to put my fear of heights behind me and completed the course.

We were late getting started because on the first obstacle after the training area there was a little kid too scared to swing across onto one of the nets. Various members of staff tried to talk him into it but without success. He was even too scared to climb down the rope ladder to the ground and didn't realise that he needed to make a decision otherwise he'd be up there for the rest of his life. We wasted about 45 minutes while all this went on.

Each stage of the course followed a similar pattern:
Rope ladder to a platform halfway up a tree
Several crossings to other trees
Zip wire down to the ground.

One of the crossings from tree to tree was an aerial zip slide from one platform to another. Normally the zip slides take you to the ground so you go at quite a steep angle and there are wood chippings on the ground to help slow you down and cushion any landing. In this case though, the end of the line was on a wooden platform so the approach was slower and not so steep. The idea was to get your feet onto the sloping approach to the platform and climb to safety. Unfortunately Emma's legs were too short and she started to slide backwards and ended up suspended from the cable, 30-odd feet above the ground. Now my fear of heights was at it's worst when I was standing on the narrow platforms up in the trees, but I think it would have really kicked in if that had happened to me. It took quite a long time for a member of staff to hear the cries for help and to come to her rescue.

Despite this minor setback, everyone seemed to enjoy the day out, including Jill, who's recent birthday was the reason for going.