Forest Adventure

I recently received an email from the blog club that I'm part of, and the subject line said "Forest Adventure." My first thought was something like, "I like forests! I like adventure! Count me in!" It turned out that the email was offering complimentary tickets to bloggers to a place called Forest Adventure, in return for the bloggers writing a post about their experience. I was totally keen to check it out, so took them up on the offer.

Forest Adventure is a sort of aerial obstacle course up in the trees, with ladders, tightropes, zip-lines, and other fun stuff. I was super excited to try it. Bryan isn't a big fan of heights, so I thought he might not enjoy passing an afternoon swinging through the trees. I invited my friend Andrea to accompany me, and she agreed, although she may have had very little clue what she was getting herself into!

We were early for our appointment, which was cool because it gave us a chance to check out Bedok Reservoir, where the place is located. It's a pretty setting! And before long, we were being suited up in harnesses and oh-so-fashionable helmets.

Some tool belts really would have completed the ensemble

We were doing the Grand Course, which is over two hours of obstacles and fun stuff. But first we went through about 20 minutes of training to show us how to navigate the course and to ensure we didn't do anything stupid. Training included a cute little mini zip-line that made me excited for the real thing!

Before long we were on our way. It was SUPER FUN. There were all kinds of obstacles: ladders, swinging logs to step on, balance beam-type things, tight ropes, and more.

Ascending into the trees!

Andrea navigating one of the obstacles.
It's harder than it looks!

Each obstacle had a difficulty rating. Some, like the ladders, were pretty easy. Others were a lot more challenging! I was especially bad at navigating one of the tight ropes that had a loose top rope you could hold on to. I more or less crab-walked the whole way across and succeeded in looking hilariously awkward. Another difficult one was made up of long skinny logs set at angles to each other. Andrea somehow crossed it upright while appearing composed and even graceful. I, on the other hand, looked like this:

WOAH! Swinging logs are not my specialty!

Ahhhh, this is much easier

Aaaaand now it's hard again!

One of the more memorable obstacles was something called a Tarzan swing, which is pretty much how it sounds. You clip into a carabiner on a rope and then hop off the platform. The rope swings you (FAST) into a cargo net. You grab onto the net and climb up it onto a platform. It all sounds pretty straightforward, but it was more exciting than it seemed. The rope was kind of long, so when you first jump off the platform, it feels like you're free-falling for a second! And hauling yourself up the cargo net takes some upper body strength! It all really feels like something from an episode of American Gladiators.

Psyching myself up to leap off the platform

The zip-lines were definitely my favorite - some were really long and took us right out over the water. And when you're on those things, you really get going fast! We had been taught how to land in the sand pits at the end of the zip-lines, but Andrea and I both proved to be fantastically bad at it. Our landings were typically accompanied by a crash and a big puff of sand. By the end of the day we could literally pour sand out of our shoes! But even though we sucked at landing it was fine - the sand pits were pretty soft. I think they may have been designed with clumsy girls in mind!

Preparing to take the plunge

Yeehaw!

It looks scary but it was REALLY fun!!! That's me way out there!

There were four ziplines total. On the last one, which is also the end of the course, Andrea executed a perfect landing. I was behind her and I thought, "OK, I'm going to have a good landing too. It'll be a good way to end the day." A minute later I was careening into the sandpit backwards. Oh well.

I felt like there should have been a crowd there cheering
when she pulled off this landing!

When we finally got done with the course, we were more than ready to kick back with some ice cold water. But not before a final photo shoot to document how awesome we looked in our adventuring gear! Not everyone can pull off climbing harnesses and yellow safety helmets, but I think we did pretty well.

Don't we just look so smart?!

They really should make us their spokesmodels!

Andrea and I had a great time at Forest Adventure, and it was good exercise too. I definitely woke up the next morning with soreness in muscles I didn't know I had (my armpit muscles hurt. What is that?!) Anyway,  I recommend it for a fun afternoon with friends or family. We saw lots of kids on the kids course, and they looked like they were having a ball. I do think tickets are a little expensive - our tickets were complimentary, and I think I might have balked at the SG$42 per adult for the grand course. But keep your eye out for deals - there is special pricing for kids, students, families, and groups, and a special promotion coming up on Mother's Day - moms go free on the Grand Course if they accompany a kid aged 11 or older. Also, there's an costume contest on May 26 & 27 (dress like Jane & Tarzan) and the best costumes win a pair of free tickets. So if you want to check out Forest Adventure, keep your eyes peeled for deals and check out their promotions page!