The Daring Continues…

This is my last post about the tree climbing adventure orienteering course our kids and their guest did last summer in our German Landal Wirfttal holiday park.  Rens, our Dutch instructor who we already knew from doing archery and pistol shooting earlier in the week, let us keep our options open because he said we really needed to see the tree climbing course first before adding Little Mr and his guest to our final activity bill for the day (they were still fully kitted out with all the safety equipment from abseiling).

As it turned out both of them stayed firmly on the ground for most of the time we were here, they were simply not tall enough to get past the bigger gaps between obstacles, which is exactly the problem that Rens predicted. They did however plead and beg to be allowed to do the flying fox (zip wire) and so after a little needed help to get up to the required platform, they whistled down the incline into the waiting hands of one of the other helping parents below.

As usual some of my photographs have been edited for family (and guest) privacy reasons. These activities made their day, all three kids have overcome fears to do something new and we are really proud of them.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Getting Into The Thick Of The Forest…

Following yesterday’s posts, last summer our kids had two opportunities to do for want of  better description: “a tree climbing obstacle course”. This time my vantage point on higher ground allowed me to get some interesting close-ups of the course whilst the  group were running through some safety rules and instructions in the bottom of the gulley below. As per the Luxemburg set-up, the trees are protected from the tight wires of the course by the inclusion of additional wooden stakes. This course has many additional features: tires, ropes that have to be crawled under before you can get onto a platform, and more rope walking and sitting sections, all of which later produced buckets of squeals and laughter. Here I get to zoom in on the intricacies of the course…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Overcoming Obstacles A Second Time Around…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We didn’t realise it earlier during our stay last summer, but there is also a tree climbing obstacle course at the German Landal Wirfttal holiday park, where we were staying.

We would not have been able to use it though because rain forced the cancellation of almost all of the outdoor activities.

Now that the outdoor centre was open again for business, we signed up the kids for both the abseiling activity and the tree climbing / obstacle course.

The participating group walked to the course, it’s a short distance as the crow flies from the spot that they abseiled off earlier in the day.

Himself and I however needed to take a car ride down the road away from the park and then loop back  off a larger track to end up on yet another back track behind them.

My spot next to the car is on a track in the middle of a large hill, looking down on the obstacle course in a steep gully between us and Reception. Good parts of the course in the trees are almost level with where I am standing and zooming in gets me to the more distant parts of the course, and down to the floor of the gulley.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

One of the families we saw earlier at the archery course is also here: their offspring are both older and more daring than ours so one of their boys leads the way and shows the group how it is done.

The Luxemburg experience has given Kiwi Daughter a lot of confidence,  she did this twice round.

Her verdict was that although this course was far shorter than the Luxemburg one,  many of the obstacles were either more interesting in design or harder, so in the end she wasn’t sure which course she enjoyed more.
There are several dramatic end points to the courses that the group did today, the tamer of the two is the flying fox that Little Mr and his guest enjoyed, the scarier option is a being attached to a sort of rope swing contraption and lowered down after one or two gigantic swings.

Once Kiwi Daughter saw the lads of the other family tackle the big rope swing, she determined that she would give it a go too, letting out a seriously decent scream on the first leg of the descent just for the heck of it. After the session ended with a group de-briefing, they took a side track short-cut back to the Reception building, Himself and I retraced the track and road back in the car and met up with some tired kids. We were as proud as they were that both obstacles and fears had been overcome today.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)