I went Ziplining and I didn’t die.
2008 was the year I discovered that I had Acrophobia — the fear of height.
We (me, my siblings and my aunt) had just arrived in Ghana for a vacation and as part of our itinerary, we visited Kakum National Park located on the coast of southern Ghana.
Kakum National park has a 330-metre long, 7 bridge canopy walkway which we all attempted plying. For context, the walkway was the height of a storey building with more than seven floors. And it was surrounded by nothing but interwoven ropes, swinging sideways at each pounce of a foot. To make it more daunting, it stands over an area of rainforest, such that when you look down, you might begin to panic and not have the mental strength to complete the journey.
One of such people who couldn’t stand the fear was my then over forty-something-year-old aunt who turned back after the crossing the first bridge.
I was also one of such. But instead of turning back, I tried to make sure I was the last person to cross the bridge and in severe cases, I pleaded with my siblings to not come behind me while I walked on one of the bridges. Luckily for me, on many occasions, I was the last to mount the walkway, so I got the chance to walk towards the next bridge terminal ̶f̶a̶s̶t̶ slow as I could.
After walking for over 30 minutes I finally got past the seventh bridge. And viola! I made it!!!
I did it afraid, going slowly and it made me really happy! Something happened to me unconsciously, awareness and confidence. I became aware of my fear of height, however, completing the 7-bridge high-walk boosted my confidence in my ability to complete what I start.
Ten years later, I was in another African country — South Africa — this time for a company retreat. And Ziplining was one of the events on our itinerary. I boldly indicated my interest to participate in it, signing something that looked like a “death warrant” 😅 and joined the team enroute the venue.
Not gonna lie, I was having doubts about my ability to follow through with it, all the while we were in the pick-up van laughing and taking pictures. But my fears were further accentuated when we arrived the starting point.
Merely looking down, I was already permutating the backup plan for if I did something wrong, or if the rope cut or something went wrong, how would I (or anyone else) be rescued?
We were paired into groups of eight (8) but the videographer decided to join my group so we were nine (9). Guess who was (almost) the last person?, me of course!
My thinking was that if other people could do it, I can do it.
One of the instructors(better described as a jungle animal — monkey — for lack of a better word), mounted the rope and swang on it like a true monkey. He made it look easy peasy. The first person in our group was a military-like guy, he did his own, shouting along the way, and arrived safely at the other end. I thought to myself: “Well, this one na hard guy normally, so…”
Until it got to the turn of one of the ladies in my group and I saw how she survived, LOL. So, I decided to give it a try.
Our lead instructor — Tee — strapped all of us and asked us to sit on the air, so that it would form a good angle for us to slide through. There were multiple times I didn’t want to “sit” out of fear.
By the time we got to our third terminal, I thought to myself “Phew, we are almost there”, I was assuming it was only seven (just as in the Ghana incidence) ropes to traverse. At this time, one of the ladies (lady P.) in my group couldn’t take it anymore and asked that Tee ziplined with them to the next terminal.
By the eight terminal, Mr W. was already tired and asked that he be let go, so, one of the supporting instructors escorted him out, lady P. joined him, they had had enough.
The thing about ziplining is that some would be very fast and high, others would be long, some would be short and low etc. It required some level of strength to hold on to the rope anchor and some level of skill to reduce once speed, else you’d have a rough arrival at the other end.
Long story short, I made it to the 10th terminal and it was time to leave. See me thinking we’d get like a cable car or something. But voila! na trekking tinz.
We did a little bit of mountain climbing through a defined path and came to a place where the truck that dropped us would now be picking us.
Not gonna lie, it was utmost fun, albeit scary but worth the adventure!
Unto my next adventure, which do you think I should try next?
Skydiving? Definitely not me and you.
Shalom.
Benjamin
