If you happen to have been anywhere near the NEC recently, you can’t fail to have noticed that a large helicopter appears to have crash-landed in an adjacent building, whilst an orange, 60 foot high King Kong scale climbing frame has sprung up right by it. These are parts of the latest attraction for Birmingham, The Bear Grylls Adventure.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock (and if you have, Bear has probably got some very handy tips and tricks for you) you’ll know all about Bear and his love of adventure and survival. He’s trained with special forces, been the youngest ever chief scout and survived school whilst being called “Bear”. Suffice to say, this guy knows all about survival and endurance.
So what does Bear want to put you through, I bet you’re wondering. Well there is a wide variety of challenges to suit all abilities, budgets and wants. You can learn how to sky dive in a giant hair dryer, scuba or snorkel your way around sharks and rays, run, jump and skip across the tallest high ropes course in Europe and learn all about survival in a series of challenges set in Bears Base Camp. Today we’ll tell you about Base Camp and the High Ropes course. Look out next week for an update where I see if Mr Trips looks as tasty to Bears pet sharks as he does to me and I conquer my fears of diving.
We split our Base Camp and High Ropes adventure over two days, due to the school run. First of all, we did Base Camp on Monday. We rocked up to where the aforementioned Chinook helicopter is poking out of a building next door to the Genting Arena, and made our way past the land rover, and wild scenery outside. We were greeted by an eager gang of Bear’s helpers (Cubs?) who appreciated our need to split our activities over two days and sorted that out first of all. We were then shown around the place and given nice clear instructions on how to use the complimentary lockers where we could stash all of our valuables. We then had ten or twenty minutes to wait until our alloted time-slot came around, and we spent most of that gawking at the giant aquarium that takes pride of place in the building, admiring the fish, sharks and rays all slowly gliding past us. It is in here where the scuba and snorkelling experiences are held. Mr Trips commented how much he would love to have had a go at the scuba diving. More on that later.
So our time came, and a very enthusiast American called Spike gathered our little group around him and took us off to a briefing room where a recording of Bear informed us of what awaited us. The first activity of base-camp was a survival maze. It would be very unfair of me to reveal all of what goes on in there, but you’ll need your wits, bravery and bravado about you. Watch out for the creepy crawlies!
Next up was an assault course especially designed in conjunction with the Royal Marines. It is not easy. Lots of running, jumping, climbing, crawling, sliding and all sorts of stuff that no grown-up has any business doing anymore. Make sure you dress appropriately! As Mr Trips found out, jeans are not that forgiving when it comes to pushing yourself across a beam on your belly whilst ten foot in the air. He was very pleased with himself at scaling and climbing a sheer wall though. And my favourite bit was the fireman’s pole.
Time to challenge the brain next, as were were locked inside a two-leg escape room. Our team did really well I think, and figured out the first room in enough time. The second room defeated us however. I say us, Mr Trips and I were on the ball; our companions who had been paired up with us were RUBBISH though. Totally their fault. Make sure you watch out for a quirky slide during this section. Long sleeved tops are a good idea.
Finally we rounded our Base Camp with a spot of archery with a longbow. We had a very detailed training and safety session, before being let loose on a range. I did quite well, after a few wild shots at first (I may have seen one of my arrows go into the next persons target. Oops) and before long I was hitting the target with my arrows. It is much harder than you think. But so much fun.
Base Camp, we thought, was a great way to spend a few hours. All of the activities that were introduced to us were fun and challenging, which is what Bear and his pals want for you. I would definitely recommend you having a go, if this sounds like your sort of thing.
We returned the following weekend for our go on the high-ropes course. Sadly, as is the thing with being parents, Childcare issues raised their head and sadly for me and him, Mr Trips was left to do the High Ropes on his own, whilst Matilda, Jemima and I had a look around and cheered him on from the ground, starting with his zip wire descent from the back of the crashed helicopter.
Five stories of high ropes course, 60 foot in the air, in the dark (we went for the last slot at 6pm). Mr Trips had the high ropes course all to himself, apart from the instructors following him around. He tells me you are clipped in to a very secure feeling safety harness and then attached to an overhead rail that keeps you safe and secure all of the way around the free-roaming course. Yes that’s Free-roaming. Go where you like, how you like, when you like. There is a variety of different challenges, 36 all in all. Mr Trips least favourite was the rolling beam, which skimmed away from his foot every time he tried to go across. He made it in the end but it wasn’t particularly graceful. He also paused on one challenge to watch a plane land at the airport next door. In the dark, 60 foot up, he tells me it looked very pretty. The intensity of the challenges goes up as you ascend each story, but Mr Trips says his confidence grew as he went up every level as well, so by the time he was at the top, he was skipping across the floating tiles and running across the static beams.
He was certainly out of breath and had a big smile on his face when he arrived back on solid ground, after completing the last challenge on the top level. He liked it a lot.
Me and the girls enjoyed having a look around inside. You can purchase spectator tickets if you are not taking part which let’s you have a look around and spend time in the café too.
The girls loved it and even though they are too young to partake (maybe that’s your next step Bear? A mini course for the little ones?) they went home with big smiles on their faces too.
All in all, the experience we had at Bear Grylls Adventure was really worthwhile. It had a lot of new experiences for us, some more challenging than others, but we never felt like anything was really beyond us which I think is really important. There might be people out there that see this and think it is not for them because they’re too old, too young, not fit enough, not brave enough. Give it a go if you fancy it, the workers there will look after you and you might end up surprising yourself.
Watch out next week when we return for an underwater adventure. Me and Mr Trips can’t wait.
Disclaimer: We were invited along in return for an honest review. We loved it and are going back for more next week.
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