Trees Adventure Grose River Park

With over 110 challenges, and more than 20 flying foxes, Trees Adventure at Grose River Park is the largest of its kind in Australia. One of their promotional materials directly cites this fact.



I visited Trees Adventure at Grose River Park yesterday with a few friends. We had been gifted a couple of tickets as part of a belated birthday present, and so the four of us booked our two hour climbing session and drove to Yarramundi. To our dismay, it began to rain intermittently along the way, but we would later come to realise that this was not so much of an issue as we had anticipated it would be.



We arrived at Trees Adventure where there was ample parking, and we quickly made our way to the counter to sign the relevant forms. Following this, we were given our equipment - gloves, helmets, and of course harnesses. One of the staff members then explained to us how to use the clips on our harnesses, and we tested out our clips on a simple ground level exercise that had been set up for this practise.



As some of the courses are 25 metres above ground level; strong emphasis was placed on safety. However, none of us were too anxious (excepting one friend who was mildly afraid of heights), as we quickly understood the ingenuity of the harness system. One clip would always have to be locked onto a wire before we could proceed through the courses. Furthermore, the equipment seemed sturdy and well-kept (though the gloves were rather unpleasant to put on, as could be expected after so many sweaty hands had used them previously).



Once all these initial requirements had been satisfied, we approached one of the easier courses to begin our climbing adventure. We quickly made our way across this short and relatively low course, of which involved balancing on wires and swinging logs, using flying foxes, and climbing across rope obstacles. It was a lot of fun. Moving up a few levels, the courses became more challenging. Everything was higher up, and the courses were longer. The flying fox activities for example, went from a distance of a few short metres to a distance of around twenty or thirty metres. New activities were also introduced, like the rope swing which I found particularly challenging due to what I perceive as my lack of upper body strength. Nonetheless, it was all exhilarating to go through, and the intermittent rain simply made the difficult courses even more challenging. My friends and I all agreed that the log balancing was the most difficult activity of all of the courses. With the rain making the logs slippery, as well as their constant swinging and shifting; I took around ten to fifteen minutes just to make my way across, and mildly petrified the entire time (despite the presence of the harness which would have kept me perfectly safe). This sense of achievement by the end of it was well worth the ache in my arms this morning, as at the time of writing this.



There was a moment when one of my ropes tangled, and I was stranded halfway across a bar swing. Fortunately, my friend was right behind me and pulled me back to the platform. This happened to other people on the courses, but the staff at Trees Adventure were always present and quick to assist with these sorts of incidents.



At the end of the day, we had all experienced an exciting and thrilling workout high up in the bush at Yarramundi. We had enjoyed the view of the treetops, and the nearby river while swinging, balancing, climbing and flying across our obstacles of various levels. All in all, it was a most excellent day, and the rain really did not put a damper on anything at all (excepting the logs which were made quite slippery). So if you are ever in Yarramundi, I highly recommend Trees Adventure at Grose River Park, provided that you are not intensely afraid of heights.



Rating: 10/10



Where: 200 Springwood Road, Yarramundi NSW.
Why: For a thrilling work out/adventure up to 25 metres above the ground.



Cost:

• Adult - $39
• Concession - $33
• Kids (aged 10-17) - $33
• Kids (aged 4-9) - $25

The climbing sessions are all two hours long.



When:

• Wednesday - Sunday 9am-5pm
• Mondays and Tuesdays limited to group bookings only.



Good for kids: While we were going through our initial instructions, we could hear kids shouting "this is so much fun!" and "this is awesome!" Kids certainly enjoy these obstacle courses, though please note that children of certain ages are restricted from attempting some of the harder levels.

[iMAGE13]

Categories:

#_yarramundi
#_penrith
#_western_sydney
#_parks
#_adventure
#_climbing

%sydneyfun