A second grand day out.
Today was the first day of my week off work. This is the first proper week off I've had all year, so I'm feeling a bit burned out. I took a few days off around Easter, but although that added up to 7 days off, it's just not the same, psychologically, as booking off an entire week. Not to me, anyway.
Knowsley Safari Park was the venue for today's day out. I haven't been here for a few years, I think D and I brought A here before we split, but that was an awful long time ago. This time I went with A (of course), my parents, and my niece J.
I'm not going to bore you with all the details about what the kids did (several rides on the dodgems, roller coasters, and every other ride they could get their hands on), or the details of the animals (yes, the monkeys were pulling bits off everyone else's cars as usual, the giraffes were tall, the rhinos looked scary).
What I will talk about, is the Aerial Extreme attraction they have there. This cost an extra £10 on top of the entrance fee for the park, but A was so excited about having a go on it we decided that it would be a waste not to. Seeing as we were already there. When we went to book the tickets we were told that the sessions would start every hour, and we'd have to wait for the next one to start. He was disappointed of course, he wanted to jump on straight away, but he settled for a couple more goes on the dodgems and bouncy castle while he waited.
There was a bunch of kids waiting to do the Aerial Extreme with A, although he was the youngest. The attraction is set up on three levels, based on the height, ability and nerves of the vict - er, volunteer. Because of A's height, he could only go on the lowest level. The other kids could tackle the next level up if they wanted. (When I say level, the word is appropriate in two ways; not only was each level physically higher off the ground, but they also increased in difficulty.)
The kids started out with a safety talk. They were shown how to wear their harnesses and safety helmets, and the safety rope attaching them to the guidewire. A asked lots of questions, all of which were pertinent. I was certainly impressed with the way he paid attention, took in the information, and analysed it.
Ok, out onto the obstacle course. He stood on the first platform, swung the safety rope over the junction box above his head, and off he went. The obstacles were all variations on the rope bridge theme, some wobblier and more flimsy looking than others. At no point was he daunted or scared, he just tackled each obstacle as it came. Maybe he knew that the safety rope would keep him safe, maybe he was just fearless! About halfway round he lost his footing on one of the obstacles and found himself sitting on the rope instead of standing on it. But he managed to pick himself up and carry on. Perhaps it was the instructor's warning that if anyone should fall off an obstacle and need to be rescued, the experience would be over - go straight to the end, do not pass go, do not collect £200.
Later on he was making jokes as he was going round. The rest of us were standing in the middle of the course, giving him words of encouragement as he went along. He told us he came to the park with the school a few months back, and that they were still building the course at the time. While standing in the middle of an obstacle, he stopped, pointed to the ground, and said "one of the men fell off, he's buried over there". "Oh, really?" "Yep"
He was an absolute star, and I was very impressed. Impressed with the facility, with the training and safety aspects, with the experience he got, and with the price. The sun shone, the sea lions performed, the kids tired themselves out, once again, a fantastic day out.
