Ariel Extreme in the Trafford Centre Car Park
through Groupon. Think Go Ape, once you’ve got that, transplant that to a sliver of wooded land between one of the many, many car parks at the Trafford Centre and that back of the Premier Inn and you’re there. Not as picturesque but easily accessible and with plenty of parking. Well, it would have been on any other day but not on a wet bank holiday Monday. Fair to say the car park was a little bit busy.
(Wait, you don’t know what Go Ape is? OK. You climb onto on platforms – with a harness obviously, strung between trees and with a variety of ‘crossings’ between them, then to get down you come down a zip line.)
So it’s the same as Go Ape, sort of. The main difference is that you get tied in at the start of the course and have a runner which glides along a wire and you simply drag this around the length of the course. It’s far, far simpler then Go Ape and involves less clipping in and out of the system. It did the job well and it made for a more relaxing experience all round I thought.
There were two loops of crossings, both ending with a zip wire, a first shorter one a longer second one with a bigger zip wire. The best bit was there was a really good variety of crossings, or at least there were a wider ranger of crossings then Go Ape which I really liked. Some were nice and easy but there were enough that were quite challenging – if you chose not to hang onto the rope attaching yourself to the runner. There were a few gaps to jump across, a see saw type log, some hanging buoys to try to grab onto, some tyres to walk across and some surf board type platforms.
It took us… Well I don’t know how long it took us to go around both loops. All I know is that it was enough, it wasn’t too short that it was over before you started but neither was it too long – we were all pleased to decamp to Krispy Kreme* for coffee and donuts (not me though) at the end.
Despite the rain, it was a whole heap of fun. Highly recommended! :)
*Additional advantage is that there are approximately many many places to eat 5 minutes walk away.
August 29, 2011