Blog 23 - Flying without Wings!

When creating the list of challenges a suggestion from a friend in work was the Big Zipper in North Wales. She said something like, ‘it’s a big zip wire and looks amazing fun’, okay so without much more thought than that, it made the short list! It was only after I really looked into it when booking that I realised that it was a mile long zip wire, that starts 500ft up and you fly around 100 miles an hour!!!

The next thing was to find some similar suckers, I mean willing volunteers and fellow adventurers. I was surprised when a few people did step forward so I hastily booked for us all before anyone could change their minds! Our group included married couple Sioned and Dyfan who are friends and fellow parents of children at the same school (They got given a voucher for the Zip ride for their 40^th birthdays), my friend Karen from University and her fella David and my childhood friends Lara and Kath. A cheerful group of 7 almost strangers with their mad friend ME as their main connection! God love them!

After a few lost cars, my fellow fliers and I eventually met up at Zip World in Bethesda, North Wales ready to take our flight. We hardly had time to empty our bladders, before they were asking us to take our flight early as another group had not arrived. We were whisked in to the kit room and weighed (oh the shame!) and suited and booted in our special suits in record fast time and we were on our way to the first test ‘the little zipper’.

Kath and Lara ready to launch on Little Zipper!

The Little Zipper takes you down to bottom of the quarry reaching speeds of up to 40mph. The majority of us were a little nervous but not too bad. Kath and Lara volunteered to go first and before we knew it they were off! Karen was a little nervous and David was taking it all in his stride, Dyfan volunteered to come last on his own and Sioned and I were second to last. I wasn’t too nervous at all and it felt fantastic flying over the bottom of the quarry. It was over before I knew it and being caught by some lovely man. There was a comedy moment when they started to unhook us and lower the platform but for some reason they forgot to unhook something essential, which meant that Sioned and I started lifting off the ground and hanging in the air as the platform lowered without us, giving us a very tight wedgie and giving everyone else a good laugh!

Me at the end of the Little Zipper! I look far more terrified than I felt!

6 of the group in the truck taking us to the top (Dyfan took the photo)

We then moved on to the vehicle that was going to transport us up to the top of the largest slate quarry in the world! The lovely Zip World staff were giving us lots of facts and figures about our flight and reassuring us of our safety. There was a very nervous stag group with us, who were taking their flights before us, the stag was in particular very anxious and was refusing to go at one point but the staff managed to talk him round. Watching everyone else going and staring down at the wire 500 foot up, I started to have a little wobble myself. Not enough to stop me doing it, but enough to make all my saliva dry up, get clammy hands and my legs start shaking!

Lara and I waiting nervously at the top

Karen ready for launch 500 ft up!

Me ready to go at top with the white knuckles of fear!

Before I knew it though, there was no way out and I was being strapped in and off we went, hurtling down a zip wire head first, screaming my head off but feeling like I was flying! Then I became aware of really hard rain which felt like hail hitting my face. The G force wind also pulled my goggles down off one eye. I tried to reach up to push them back on my face but it sent me a bit sideways and gave a big wobble, so I put my hand down quick smart but couldn’t see a bloody thing! I was trying to look out for the man giving me the signal to put my arms out, but I couldn’t see anything until I was right above him!

The whole thing lasted about a minute and was amazing – a total adrenaline rush! As soon as I finished I just wanted to do it again. All of the rest of the group said the same! We walked back down the hill to find our families feeling totally exhilarated.  I wish I could have done it 40 times!

Thanks to my friends Kath and Andy they gave me a go proc camera to fit to the top of my helmet, so I was able to capture the whole ride. You can see the video clip below of what it felt like and look out for the bump and wobble, where I tried to reach up to my face and then you see Lara go bombing past me.

Another challenge done (no.22) and what an amazing challenge it was and definately one of the most enjoyable!