Go Ape

Our ship mates at the Jubilee Sailing Trust  have once again invited 4 gorillas to help crew their tall ship, The Lord Nelson.

As many of you will know, the JST is one of the charities that Go Ape supports. It aims to promote the integration of people of all physical abilities through the challenge and adventure of tall ship sailing.

The JST owns two tall ships – the only two vessels in the world that have been purpose-designed and built to enable a crew of mixed physical abilities aged 16 and over to sail side by side. For the past few years Go Ape has funded a £5,000 annual bursary for aspiring sailors of all abilities who otherwise would not be able to afford to sail with the JST.

After having the ritual ‘names out of a hat ceremony’ the following members of the tribe will be setting sail from Great Yarmouth to Southampton on 6th September for 7 days:

•  Jamie from Aberfoyle
• Camilla from Wyre
• Dean from Alice Holt
• Ali from Matfen

Bon voyage me hearties!

Ryan Jones, Ospreys captain, is swinging through the trees with his family at Go Ape Margam as we speak! The Margam Tribe, being huge rugby fans, are very excited and will be chatting to him shortly and hopefully we’ll have some pics to show you later today.

Ooooh, we’re so excited. The Margam Tribe have been getting their wings and enjoying an afternoon at the course with some of the team from Red Bull. Here are the piccies!

The Rivington Tribe have just sent us pictures of Susan who has now completed all 22 current Go Ape courses! She commented that the site 3 zip wire over the reservoir was ‘on a par’ with Aberfoyle’s zip lines which for those Go Ape virgins out there are the longest in the UK. We were chuffed with that!
Here Susan shows off her 22 certificates outside the Rivington cabin. Tony, her husband, drives her to each site and navigates the way. Her two dogs Nipper and Candy started Susan on her adventure. She and Tony were looking for ‘dog friendly’ holiday destinations and stumbled upon the Go Ape in Delamere Forest.
Well done Susan!

Here’s a picture of Susan at Go Ape Matfen yesterday.
One more course to go – Rivington tomorrow – and she’s completed all 22!
She thought our zip-lines were excellent and she liked the drop on our Big Tarzan.

The Apprentice contestant Howard Ebison from Derby was swinging through the trees with the Buxton Tribe yesterday.
There were no boardroom discussions, no sneaky tactics nor any suits in sight (apart from the hairy gorilla one), and just full on fun 40ft high above the forest floor.
Howard says: ‘Thanks for a great day!’

Susan is due to complete her tree top adventures at Matfen on 24th August and Rivington on 26th August which means she will have completed all 22 Go Ape courses, wow!

We’re really on a roll at the moment. Maybe it’s the good weather, maybe kharma or maybe just good luck but the Tribe have been nominated for another 2 awards!

Go Ape Dalby have been shortlisted in the Welcome to Yorkshire White Rose Awards in the ‘Best Tourism Experience of the Year’ category whilst Wendover are in the Small Visitor Attraction category for the Tourism ExSEllence Awards 2009.

We’ll let you know if we win!

Susan used to be in the army

This morning the Tribe have been talking about a lovely man called Paul Smith – a writer from the North East – also known as the Twitchhiker. He recently spent 30 days travelling from his home in Newcastle to New Zealand relying entirely on the goodwill and generosity of people on Twitter. And why was this we hear you ask…to raise money for charity: water.

 This month Paul is a little closer to home, exploring North East England to try out various activities from Visit North East England’s Adventure Generator as voted for by people on Twitter.

Now, here’s the really good bit, Paul will be finishing off his week of adventures this Friday at Go Ape Matfen! We won the poll against surfing in Tynemouth and Mountain Biking at Kielder with 49% of the vote.

Check in again later in the week for an update on Paul’s tree top adventures.