Swinging in the Tree Tops
29 May 2016 / Words by Bryan Shedden, Photos by Paul Farquhar & Bryan Shedden
Nowra Trees Adventure is Australia’s premier tree top adventure ropes experience. The park features exciting and challenging obstacle courses high up in the tree canopy, that will have all the family swinging, leaping, climbing and flying through the forest – allowing thrill seekers and nature enthusiasts to experience the trees like never before.
Alex and I tried out the place during the Christmas school holidays and had a fantastic time. I showed some of my GoPro videos at an Illawarra Dinner Meeting and it was immediately clear there was strong interest from our adventurous MX-5ers to give it a go. Sunday 22 May would be the day and who would of thought we'd find ourselves sweating in short-sleeves on a beautiful warm afternoon only a week before winter. Don & Jackie McCormack generously offered to reward the gang with dinner afterwards at their home. They would donate homemade woodfired pizzas in exchange for our donations towards CareFlight. Wonderful!
10 MX-5s assembled at noon at Haywards Bay for the waypoint run to Nowra via Gerringong in order to avoid the endless roadworks for the Berry ByPass. Arriving at 1:15pm, we met up with Jackie and her daughter's family to bring our tally to 15 adults and 3 kids, plus another 4 spectators. That qualified us for a 10% discount, which all agreed to contribute towards a CareFlight donation. We then made our way from the park entrance through the Shoalhaven Zoo, carefully following the strict instructions not to look at the animals along the way. Is that a crocodile over there? No nothing to see here!
We were kitted out with helmets, harnesses and gloves, before being trained on the use of the various safety gear. Once you're clipped on, the harness system is foolproof and you're protected from potential falls at all times. Then we were off with our choice of four different tree top courses. Most started with the easiest Green course of 10 challenges including three flying foxes up to 6m high. The braver ones started with the Blue course of 16 challenges including three flying foxes up to 8m high. After completing that, we moved on to the Red course of 15 challenges including two flying foxes up to 12m high. The ultimate that only a handful attempted was the Black course of 21 challenges including a 15m high flying fox. We flew like foxes (winged ones!). We clambered like monkeys. We whooped and hollered like kids! It was enormous fun and a great workout too.
Exhausted after two hours of adventure in the tree tops, it was back to the MX-5s for the short drive up the road to Don & Jackie's place at Bomaderry. Parked in their long driveway, we were stunned by their beautiful acreage property with gorgeous views of the sun setting behind Cambewarra Mountain. Don had his outdoor pizza oven stoked up and the homemade pizzas started flowing. They were absolutely delicious with some delightfully surprising ingredient combinations - if you've never tried marinated figs on your pizza you're missing something special. As the evening chilled off, the gents gathered around the pizza oven with a beer or two, while the ladies opted for the warmth of the gazebo. It was a wonderful evening - thank you Don & Jackie!
Donations towards the pizza dinner and the 10% group discount resulted in a total of $230 raised for CareFlight. Thanks to all for their generous donations (again)!
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