Friday 20 March 2015

Adrenaline junkies in the family? Throw them off a cliff!

The poor old Teenager. Half-term and he was being made to go on holiday. With his FAMILY. To Cornwall. OUT OF SEASON. And stay in a CARAVAN. He was not impressed.

A part of me did feel for him. But at 15-years-old, we could hardly leave him home alone or send him clubbing in Ibiza with a bunch of lads. Not quite yet.

To go some way towards compensation, I decided to organize a surprise for him for the last day of the holiday. A treat that would feed his sensation-seeking nature: a ride on the 490m long, 40 mph zip wire at Adrenalin Quarry.

As we took the turn off and drove up the steep, gravelly hill, he jerked out his earphones, jolted upright and stammered, “W-w-what you doing? I thought we were going back to the caravan.” He’d been looking forward to caving up in his cupboard of a bedroom and getting some non-family time, clearly.

The signs gave him all the clues he needed.
He perked up immediately and shot out the car ahead of us to go and survey the scene. Oh yes. Suitably scarey. Suitably teenage.
His eyes went all shiny and he became that sweet, babbly, see-through, little 5-year-old boy who used to get excited about going on a double-decker bus. Then completely unexpected and completely out-of-character, a little voice piped up: “Can I do it too?”

I turned to look at my 8-year-old daughter. My protective, motherly instincts kicked in hard, in the pit of my stomach, and every bone in my body screamed “Nooooo!” I couldn't possibly send this little dot of a thing out into that abyss. Alone. Far away from me. Into the distance. Connected to a wire by a small metal clip.

But I mustn’t project my fears onto her. “Of course you can. Great!" I said in the most confident voice I could muster. "I’m really impressed that you want to do it!”

“I put a 3-year-old down there yesterday,” said the girl at reception reassuringly, as if reading my mind. “And they loved it. No-one’s ever come back and said they didn’t’ like it!”

Come back? Yes, hang on a minute: Where exactly was I sending her? What was at the other end of the zip wire? Because you sure as hell couldn’t see it from here. “Oh, it’s just a five minute walk,” said the girl.

So my son and daughter stepped up to what looked hauntingly like the gallows. To the man – who with his hood up in the rain – looked hauntingly like the hangman.
The first thing was for them to be weighed and harnessed up. The woman in charge of this was quite a character. “I’m really good at doing tight harnesses,” she said proudly, pulling eye-wateringly hard at the straps round my son’s groin. “I made someone cry once.” Then she attended to my daughter. “It might give you a bit of a wedgie,” she laughed.
And now they were ready to step forward to The Edge. They were going to travel side by side on parallel lines, which I took some comfort in. My son’s face was openly happy and nervous, in equal measures.
Finally, the man attached a barrel of water for my daughter to sit on to add weight to her. Then he turned to me: “Last words?” I wanted to blurt out: I love you more than you'll ever know, you’re the most precious thing in the whole wide world, if I never see you again ... “Enjoy it!” I said.

“North line, 75 kilo. South line, 25 kilo, barrel-assisted” said the man through the walkie-talkie to the person at the other end of the zip wire who was going to receive them, as if describing cargo rather than human life.

And they jumped.
Within seconds, she was indeed a little dot. Another few seconds, invisible. I hoped the person who caught her the other end would be warm and kind and welcome her with a big cuddle and a mug of steaming cocoa.
While I waited for them to come back, I distracted myself watching other lunatics being launched on the giant swing. Good grief. I'd rather have six fillings in one go with no anaesthetic.
Son and daughter both returned grinning from ear to ear. “What do you give it out of 10?” I asked my daughter. "9 ¾." She said it lost a quarter of a point because of the drizzle which made her close her eyes most of the way. (What??? You went through all that and you didn’t even look?!).

“I think the rain kind of added to it,” said the Teenager. He was chatty and cheerful for at least half an hour.

Visit the website of Adrenalin Quarry here.

If you like this, you might like 'Get locked in a room and try to escape'.

14 comments:

  1. That looks like a blast. I'd do it!


    Happy blustery first day of spring! http://robinfollette.com/blustery-duck/

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  2. You're a braver woman than I !!!

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  3. Replies
    1. Passed my difficult-to-please teenager's coolometer test!

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  4. I have a feeling my lot would love that, and it's very possible we might find ourselves down that way sometime so thanks for the write up! Have a great weekend.

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  5. I have a feeling my lot would love that, and it's very possible we might find ourselves down that way sometime so thanks for the write up! Have a great weekend.

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    1. Great! They also have coasteering in the summer which includes this thing called The Blob that fires you into the air!

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  6. I' m sure the zip lining made the whole trip a huge success for your teenager! How nice of you to find such an awesome adventure! I can only imagine how you must have felt waiting for them, Claire.

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    1. Thanks Susan. He was a real pleasure, for a while!

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  7. That looks amazing, I'd like to have a go but my ten year old, who I just showed has said no. Hats off to your youngest and you for being a brave mum.

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  8. That looks amazing, I'd like to have a go but my ten year old, who I just showed has said no. Hats off to your youngest and you for being a brave mum.

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    1. Interesting Sarah ... horses for courses! I'm with your ten year old!

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  9. Oh my goodness that looks terrifying and so much fun. Great post #FamilyTested

    http://twinkletwinklehereyouare.weebly.com/

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    1. It's funny how Terrifying = Fun for kids and some adults. Not for me!

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