Go Ape – and release your inner gorilla!

Emdad Rahman

What better way to spend a day in December to burn off those holiday calories than climbing and leaping from tree to tree? It is with exactly this in mind that a visit was planned to the latest Go Ape adventure site in Battersea Park, London. This is the first time Go Ape have built a treetop adventure course outside of the confines of a forest environment. As a mark of their popularity, it is also the 29th UK site.

Go Ape is the UK’s number one Forest Adventure, with 55 adventures across 29 sites UK-wide including Tree Top Adventure, Forest Segway, Tree Top Junior and Zip Trekking Adventure.  This brand new site from Go Ape, the UK’s multi-award winning forest adventure company, is situated in the heart of Battersea Park, and combines a Tree Top Adventure plus a Tree Top Junior course for mini-Tarzans. The experiences are physically challenging, with the highest obstacle crossings double the height and many twice as long as the usual Go Ape courses.

Photo: Geoff Caddick/PA Wire

While welcoming the first guests to Go Ape Battersea Park, Tristram Mayhew, Chief Gorilla at Go Ape, said: “Go Ape is all about creating accessible adventures, so bringing the experience to a city is a big milestone for us. We’ve long wanted to create a high wire tree top adventure in the centre of London and we’re thrilled to see our first visitors going up in the trees today. There’s already a real buzz and sense of excitement and we’re looking forward to welcoming many more Londoners over the coming months and seeing if they’re up to our new challenge.”

I thought I’d make my own judgement and cheekily wondered if Tristram had actually participated in the the adventure. I must say that after completing the course I couldn’t agree more with the old chief gorilla. Go Ape is for both young and old. Slow or fast, you do it all at your own pace. There really is a great mix of people releasing their inner monkey and you’d be surprised how along the trail you can actually socialise and share experiences with fellow adventurers – even though the course is intense and full of adrenalin.

Go Ape Battersea Park features over 40 crossings in total, which if laid out in a straight line would cover over 730 metres. It includes a thrilling 50 metre zip wire, making it an exciting tree top obstacle course for adventure seekers big and small (well, those over 1.4m tall). It is worth completing one level, taking a break and then starting the next one. As you climb higher, the course level gets harder and a little bit more energy-sapping. At the same time the fun factor and excitement quadruples! Each segment stage concludes with a super airborne zip wire finale.

Safety is paramount, and every single visitor is given an induction briefing and dummy run before being released into the wild. Ours was by a a Lithuanian student – a total gentleman throughout.

Due to the extreme nature of some parts of the course, some of the Tarzans may find themselves taking longer to complete a crossing. The experience will leave visitors both exhausted and feeling extremely accomplished. It’s more intense than Trent Park and the location is more compact, with adventurers able to look into the park, the playground, the golf putting cafe below and even greet park visitors and joggers.

Many thanks to the real stars of the show: Sachin – an asset and total star in the making; and the team at Go Ape for being such great sports. These guys are real ambassadors for the brand and worth every penny you’re paid (and a bit more).

It’s not only a good leisure activity but would be excellent for school or youth club trips and corporate/ team away days. Go Ape is based in Battersea Park and is fully open to visitors. It is most certainly a treasured memory be it with friends, family or even solo.

•Tree Top and Tree Top Junior Adventures are available to book at:
www.goape.co.uk/battersea-park

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