Action Packed...

With 3 boys around most of the time these days, life sure is busy!!  Jake is thrilled to have company his own age around so often and its great getting them out and about together.  I am astounded by how competitive boys really are though!!

Saturday morning saw us at Acrobranch in Constantia.  Basically, it's a series of obstacle courses that have been built up in the trees - seriously well worth a visit, especially if you have busy kids.  It challenges them physically in a very safe environment.

The kids (and accompanying adults) are briefed on how to use their carbina clips and then have to show that they've understood the rules and are capable of using their equipment...

 This is all done with your feet very firmly on the ground...

 There are 3 tracks that you can do, the yellow course is for smaller kids, then the green course for all and lastly the blue, which is only for bigger kids.  Jake was not happy that he wasn't tall enough to do the blue course, but Michael was.  The two of them literally ran through the yellow course and disappeared on the green course before I even got to yell "have fun".  Cameron took it a little slower and Marius and I did the main course with him...

Every now and then, I'd catch a glimpse of Michael through the trees...

And my own little monkey-boy, Jake...

There go our boys and in the far background, you can see Marius, helping Cam go through the yellow course...

The kids literally disappear into the bush...

A slide...

It was really difficult taking these photos, besides the lighting being tricky with the tall trees, it was overcast and even drizzled a little.  The kids weren't prepared to slow down for me to take snaps either...

So, most of my pictures today are of Cam, since we did the track with him...

And my sweet overgrown boy, who I think had more fun than the little ones...

By the time we got about half way through our course, Michael and Jake were already finished and Michael moved onto the blue course.  Jake was grumpy, but did his best not to show it.  Next time I'll just make him stand on tippy toes so he can go with...

The blue course is quite a bit higher...

Jake and Cam decided to do the green course together again, Marius went on the blue track with Michael and I had free time to take photos...

I think Michael showed Marius a thing or two on the criss-cross...

These two literally ran their way through the green course the second time around...

I know which way I went and you can guess which way the boys took...

Walking the tightrope in the drizzle...

It was quite a workout...

And great for practising balancing skills...

Plus, with the ropes, you were safe, even when you lost your balance along the way...

And they all had a turn to fall...

The basic rules are that you always have to be connected with 1 cable.  8m up in the air, you don't want to fall.  So one stays attached to the tree, while you connect to the rope...

Once you're safely connected to the rope, you can move your second clip to the rope too...

And then you're safe to jump...

Zip lining.  I got stuck here.  It wasn't funny and Marius had to come rescue me.  I forgot to put my pulley onto the rope, which your clips clip into.  I just put my clips on the rope and jumped.  I didn't get far.  The ropes for the clips are far longer than the ropes for the pulley, so I couldnt' reach the cable to pull myself along like Jake's doing here.  All I can say is that harness is not comfortable when you're hanging from it.  Thank you Marius, don't know what I would do without you...

Once I was safely on the ground, I could get a few snaps of the kids doing the zipline...

The difference between these two photos clearly shows the difference in these two boys personalities...

All in all, a fantastic morning out.  For R110 you can do the two courses, for R140, all three.  You're allowed in for 2 hours, which is plenty of time.  The kids have all decided to have their next birthday parties there and while you're not allowed to take food and drinks in, the neighbouring restaurant, Constantia Nek, will make a cake and serve cooldrinks afterwards.  If you haven't been, go!!

There's another post coming with the second lot of our weekend photos.

Sue XXX