An exhilarating high ropes adventure at Go Ape!

If you like adventure – and don’t mind heights – then Go Ape! is an experience not to be missed!

Located at Haldon Forest Park, just a short drive from Exeter, Go Ape is a high wire course through the trees, with a fantastic variety of high-level crossings and obstacles. When it’s time to descend, you get to soar through the trees to the forest floor via zip-line!

There are two courses to tackle; the Tree Top Adventure which is an entry level course, recommended for ages 4 – 10 (minimum height 1 metre), or for thrill-seekers aged 10 and above, there is the Treetop Challenge (minimum height 1.4 metres).

This summer we tackled the Treetop Challenge, which features five different courses of crossings suspended between the trees, each ending with an epic zip-line – one of which is 230 metres long! Obstacles are classified by their difficulty – from moderate to extreme – and there are several junctions where you can choose which route to take, depending on how confident you’re feeling!

Safety is of the utmost importance here. Before you begin there is a comprehensive safety briefing and some supervised practice runs close to the forest floor, as you’re responsible for clipping yourself on and off the different obstacles. There are two safety lines so you can make sure you’re always attached to the trees. After that you’re free to head up into the forest canopy and complete the course at your own speed! It took us around two hours to complete the five courses, and the Go Ape team remained close by in case we needed any help.

Once you’ve overcome the initial nerves of being so high up, the feeling of traversing through the forest canopy within the serenity of Haldon Forest is incredible, and really makes you feel at one with nature.

As well as the thrill of flying down the zip-lines, there are also two Tarzan swings, where you step off a platform and swing – like Tarzan – into a cargo net. This was the most nerve-wracking part of the course for us (and there is the option to bypass it), but once we’d worked up the courage to jump, was a truly exhilarating experience!

Afterwards, we went for a drink in Haldon’s Ridge Café to celebrate our bravery and spend a bit longer soaking up the peace of the forest.

We were lucky to have a dry, warm day for our experience, but it is well sheltered under the trees, so it's a great all-weather outdoor activity. We’d recommend wearing old clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty, unless you are more agile than us and therefore less likely to end up lying in the dirt at the bottom of the zip-line! It is also recommended to wear gloves to protect your hands from the ropes, but you can buy these from the Go Ape cabin on arrival if you wish. You can also leave any belongings here, free of charge.

Tickets for the Treetop Challenge are £36 per person, but if you’re booking as part of a family with 3+ people, you can save up to 15% - find out more here. Tickets for the Treetop Adventure start from just £21 per person.

We had a fantastic afternoon taking part in this exhilarating physical and mental challenge, and will definitely be back in future to share the experience with friends and family (now that we're Go Ape experts!).