Ziplining Might Possibly Not Be for Acrophobiacs

I am more of a spa/shopping/relax on the beach while someone brings me a frozen drink kind of person.

 My idea of roughing it is staying in a hotel with no room service.

 I don’t like bugs, I don’t like snakes and I like to sleep in a cool, dark room with a fan running.

 The idea of anything other than a leisurely hike through the woods with a hot tub and fireplace waiting at the end is not at all appealing.

And I don’t like heights. Not at all. Heights make me dizzy, sick and terrified. My palms sweat and my mouth is as dry as Phoenix in July.

So you will be very surprised to learn that, when I found out that ziplining at Adventures Unlimited in Milton, Florida was going to be an option on a press trip we took recently to Navarre, Florida I was…sort of intrigued.  It didn’t look all that high in the pictures. Well, here, watch the video.

Now, that doesn’t that look cool and easy – and not that high? I can do this, I told myself. How hard can it be? Tom was a little taken aback although he didn’t tell me until much later that he never dreamed I would actually do it. He decided to abstain, not because he is afraid of heights – quite the contrary – but so that he could get photos of this momentous event.

We arrived at Adventures Unlimited which is actually a supremely cool place and I would love to go back. They have tons of things to do, in addition to ziplining, and once we got there I realized that we had taken a canoe trip with them years ago as a family that was wonderful. You can canoe, kayak, tube down the river and camp along its sandy banks. It’s a beautiful location and the river is a clear, tea color with clean white sand on the bottom. Lovely.

But we were here to zipline.

Yikes. I'm actually doing this.

At this point, I was really pretty cool about the whole thing. We had to sign some sort of waiver that basically said they were not responsible if we did something lame brained.

Signing the waiver.

We walked out of the little store and around to the front porch where you can hang out and relax or wait for the fools who are out ziplining.

Lovely front porch.

 Our gear was spread out for us and we began by choosing gloves, since we would need them to hold onto the line.

Our gear all ready to be donned.

I have gloves! I am good to go!

Next came directions and an introduction to ziplining.

Listening carefully.

 We put on our harness and the guides helped us and made sure everything was put on correctly. They were very, very professional and very, very conscientious about making sure that our gear was perfect and we would be safe. It was quite reassuring.

Getting on our harness.

Trying to hang loose but a little freaked out.

What? I can be cool.

Next came bandannas that went under our helmets to contain our hair and help the helmets stay on better.

Haven't done this since college.

Helmet on, good to go!

 We were all geared up, had our safety lecture and instructions and were ready for our practice zipline but we had to trek through the woods to get there. Once we arrived, I was very encouraged to see that it wasn’t very high at all. I can do this! We had two excellent guides and one of them ziplined across to show us how to do it and to help us when we made it to the other side. I clambered up on the platform and jumped!

Jumping off!

It was truly a blast. I flew through the air but felt like I had complete control because they had so carefully explained how to hold on and monitor our speed.

Made it! Piece of cake!

This was just our introduction to ziplining, now we had to get to the actual ziplining course. At this point, I was feeling pretty darn cocky. I had ziplined! I was so completely and totally fabulous! I was adventure girl! We headed out to the ziplining course.

Heading to the real zipline course.

I was good to go. I was geared up, revved up and ready to zipline through the trees, through the skies, over the frakkin Grand Canyon. And then. Then I saw it.

IT.

My nemesis.

The first tower.

The harbinger of my doom.

 Wow. That’s. Um. Really tall. Like, really, really, really tall.

But I could do this! I was geared up, revved up and ready to go!

I started up the steps with the others.

Up one set of stairs. Up another another set of stairs. Yet another. Then we were almost to the platform at the top and you actually had to climb a ladder to get up there and I looked at that ladder and I looked at the ground approximately 9,864 billion miles away and I said.

 Um. Yeah. I can’t do this.

And they said fine, no problem, don’t worry, it’s OK, happens all the time. They had actually told us when we were gearing up that it happened all the time. People are afraid of heights but they think they can zipline and then, oh, yeah, NO.

I danced down those stairs, so relieved that I didn’t have to jump off that tower that I didn’t feel bad at all about giving up. After all, I had ziplined! It was a tiny practice line but, the important thing was that I had geared up and ziplined. And I had photographic proof.

Tom and I walked the rest of the route with the group, taking pictures and enjoying their experience immensely. Not once did I feel a teeny, tiny shred of remorse that I had decided not to do it.

They truly had a ball zipling through the woods and over the river.

Freaking out the canoers a little bit.

I don’t feel bad at all about not completing the course. I tried something that terrified me and I’m pretty proud of that. I may have just ziplined on a tiny practice run but, dammit, I ziplined! I think we should all try things that scare us once in a while. And flying through the air on that line was wonderful.

You should try it.

Me? I’ll be the one canoeing.

The thing about canoeing is that there are no heights.

None at all.

And that sounds pretty damn good.

Full disclosure: Our adventure was provided by Adventures Unlimited, but as always, I will share my honest opinion about any travel experiences I have.

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