Friday, September 22, 2006

Up Up and Away



photo ... Gabrielle and 19yr old Liam on a cloud forest bridge

Wowsers!!!!!! What a day. We had a day of activity. Nick had a try at canyoneering which was a mix of canyoning and rapelling down a few waterfalls. Taken by 4wd up a mountain and then hiked through the jungle to a beautiful stream, puta on all the safety gear and then briefed about what was to happen next. A small drop of 20 ft for a practice into a waist deep pool and the water was pleasantly warm. About a 10 minute walk through the river canyon often steep and narrow and often needed 5 contact points, both hands, both feet and some other part of the body. Then the next falls were a vertical 80ft drop, it was difficult getting the hang of stepping into the air, then again repelling down other falls and rapids and canyoning through sometimes waist deep water until the final falls which were the highest 180 feet. What a buzz. I had the rythm and was able to drop to about halfway and then swing through the cascading water of the falls.

photo ... Gabrielle swinging free on a zip line


We travelled to Monteverde by local bus and boat and what a great place Monteverde is as well. The adventure capital of Costa Rica. We went on a canopy walk and went Zip lining. Gabrielle who was apprehensive as she was worried about propelling herself off a 480ft high mountainside along 2310 ft long cable also tackled the 11 zips and was dying to do it again and again. She was right out of her comfort zone and loving it. Nick was loving it.
The wildlife here is great. This animal was walking across the road.

5 comments:

Nicole S said...

Thankyou so much for the photos! They are absolutely fantastic. The girls were enthralled.
In fact, Charlotte laughed for the first time in about 3 days when she saw Papa! She has been really unwell, so it was lovely to see a smile on her face as she yelled 'Papa'.

Julie's back home.... but had a fantastic time... said...

OH MY GOD!!!!
That was for the freakin' huge spider..
and for Gabrielle in mid-air!!!
What an absolute blast for you both..

Rachel said...

Way to go, mum! That zipline looks so cool. Kids were very impressed with all photos. On photobucket, spider was a video (about 2 seconds). Ryan wants one for a pet.

steve and sue said...

Hooley dooley! What a buzz!

Adam and Eva said...

My goodness it sounds like you are having a crazy time. Nice spider.