Mo(Go Ape) Promotions: With a busy workload, the team recently started getting the itch to do something outside of the office. Something freeing, something that required swinging through the tree tops, something to release the inner ape.
That’s right! Like the “See No Evil” emoji we cannot get enough of, the MoJo team decided to retrace our evolutionary steps back to our primate days and take to the tree tops in Nottingham’s Sherwood Forest.
It was another weekend event for the MoJo team and the weather was in our favour as sun beams bounced off our car on the way to Nottingham. Arriving for our 10:30 slot, we were all harnessed-up in preparation for the safety briefing.
The first safety demonstration required a volunteer from someone in the crowd. David, being the glory-hog he is, raised his hand before the instructor even finished the question, eagerly stepping up to the mark before the other MoJo members, or any of the other 10 randoms within the same time slot, could. It worked out for the best! After executing the small training section with perfection, the Go Ape instructor asked the rest of David’s team to follow, which meant that we wouldn’t be stuck behind any slow-pokes on the actual course.
We made our way to the first section and entered the gate to gaze upon a huge rope ladder, which kick started our swinging journey. In the tree tops, we could have easily been mistaken for apes (or an Orangutan in Hannah’s case) as we traversed beams, crawled through hanging barrels and zoomed down zip wires.
The big event was the Tarzan swing, which was brought to our attention before we started the climb. As we made our way through the course, we could hear the screams and cries of those ahead of us, trying to tackle the Tarzan swing, but from the sounds of it, losing. Finally arriving for our turn, our apprehension building, we ascended the unstable ladder to the top of the ledge. After checking we were safely connected, and checking again (and maybe once more just to be sure), one by one we jumped, screaming out our lungs as we were jerked down by the rope and launched towards the cargo net opposite. Dazed from the initial impact, on the second strike we had to scrabble up the netting, emerging on the other side as fragile and broken individuals.
Dramatic as we may be, it was actually really fun! It was a great day out which provided many laughs, including a competition where we judged each other’s landings on the multiple zip wires, gymnastics style. Kathryn’s elegant, Mary Poppins style landing was poetic, Sally nailed her descent with precision straight as an arrow, whereas David completely wiped out, hitting the dirt like a flailing mad man.
We finished the day enjoying a pub lunch. Sadly, no bananas were ordered, but overall it was a brilliant day, which we would recommend to anyone wanting to unleash their inner King Kong!