For John’s 29th birthday I bought him a voucher for Go Ape and for my 26th John bought us tickets to see one of my favourite bands, The Proclaimers. We decided to book Go Ape for the same date as the concert and make a day of it.
We went to Go Ape at Whinlatter Forest in the Lake District, just 50 minutes from Carlisle. Since I was convinced the highest Go Ape in the country would get the better of me we asked John’s friend and business partner, Ben, to come along.
The boys were shown the ropes (literally) and began making their way around the course. With my feet firmly on the ground I watched them navigate through the trees and over all sorts of obstacles high in the canopy.
The course at Whinlatter features tunnels, bridges, crossings, cargo nets and more. Some of the obstacles look easier to tackle than others but looks can be deceiving. At one point Ben was pretty much horizontal after choosing the trickier way round.
Since it was raining and my camera and I were getting a bit damp I decided to retreat to the visitor centre for a cup of tea and a bite to eat. When I walked back into the woods I thought it might be difficult to find John and Ben again but I soon caught sight of John whizzing through the trees on one of the zip-wires before crashing onto the bark covered landing area.
The whole course took John and Ben around 2 and a half hours to navigate although they had no idea they had been in the trees for that long!
After dusting themselves down they were presented with a certificate to acknowledge their achievement (John was particularly chuffed!) and we headed back to the city for the concert at The Sands Centre.
John and I had seen The Proclaimers once before at Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival but this was a very different environment. John had asked for advice on the best seats so we were able to enjoy the show from the very centre of the audience and this time The Proclaimers had a full band in tow.
The Proclaimers were on top form and sounded album perfect. They played all of my favourites including most of the songs from the Sunshine on Leith album and a few of their most recent releases.
I absolutely loved the gig and John couldn’t get the smile off his face after his adventure in the trees. All in all I think we did pretty well with our birthday gifts!