Adventurers At Home

We’re in a state of lockdown and our usual adventures are on hold. We all had plans, whether it be our usual mountain biking with friends, hiking in a national park or a whole week away to explore a new destination. So, how do us adventurers at home keep ourselves busy whilst staying safe? We recreate our favourite adventures within our homes and gardens!

Have we lost the plot?

Quite possibly. But hey, who cares? We only have one life and we’re going to live it!

So, putting sanity to one side for a while, we decided to recreate one of our favourite adventures with whatever we could find around our home. The 36 Hour Adventure is a mashup of epic experiences that we think sum up the versatility of North Wales and help to make it the Capital of Adventure. And they’re all crammed into the best 1.5 days of your life :0)

A recipe for adventure

The core ingredients of the 36 Hour Adventure are:

• riding the world’s fastest zipline
• coasteering along epic coastline
• sunset hiking to an overnight wild camp in the mountains
• riverbugging down rapids
• abseiling off sheer limestone cliffs

Yep, we needed to get creative if we were going to pull off that lot as adventurers at home…

The world’s fastest zipline (sort of)

Although we don’t have kids, we do have swings. They were there when we moved in 3 years ago and because I refuse to ever grow up, we kept them. They’re my happy place in the summer, somewhere I go to chill out in the sunshine, preferably with an ice cream. So we figured we could repurpose them to create a kind of hammock thing to suspend me a la ZipWorld Velocity2 style.

Easier said than done. Especially when you’re in fits of laughter while you’re husband helpfully stands back to film everything and the dog actually looks embarrassed…

Coasteering in your garden…

Next up it’s coasteering. Invented here in Wales, coasteering is an amazing way for visitors to experience the stunning rocky coastline of Anglesey. Usually.

In the absence of a beautiful coastline and as adventurers at home, we had to make do with the next best thing: a kiddies paddling pool borrowed from our niece and nephew with a gardening step as a diving platform.

With wetsuit donned and that all important helmet on (safety first kids), I waddled out of the back door. Never have I been more grateful there was no chance of any surprise visitors popping round…

That first leap was scarier than anticipated. With Jim (husband, business partner and now chief videographer) at the ready with the camera, visions of an epic fail came flooding to mind. How slippy was the pool floor? Would Rodney (an anxious guy at the best of times being a rescue dog with a troubling history) go into panic overdrive? Would I smash my face on the plastic rails of the paddling pool…? Pushing my fears aside, I took a giant leap into the unknown. Landing a split second later in barely ankle deep water, the reality of what I was doing hit home and hysterics kicked in!

For dramatic effect on the next attempt, I went for the knee-bend on landing. Much more realistic…

An epic hike & wild camp

We do love a good hike. Taking approximately 34 steps, we made the arduous journey to the patch of land at the side of garden we optimistically call ‘the paddock’. Finding a flat bit to sleep on was impossible as the tufts of grass and thistles are starting to take hold now Spring is here. Still, this was the bit we were most looking forward to. The rest of our adventurers at home experience is tongue in cheek silly fun, but this was the promise of a night away. A change of scene (ish). And a chance to cook up a campfire feast.

Armed with a few new campfire recipes (here if you want to give them a try) we pitched our new tent (bought a few weeks ago when we thought a summer of wild adventures was on the cards), lit the fire and settled down for the night with a bottle of homemade sloe gin. A suitably wild tipple for a wild night under the stars. Okay there weren’t many stars. Our hopes of getting some good night sky shots were dashed by heavy cloud cover. Still, it meant we could really relax and enjoy the evening. Have you noticed how much more still and peaceful everywhere feels since the world stopped racing along?

Dinner done and Rodney finally coaxed into the tent (he’s still getting used to the idea that new experiences can be good, bless him), we settled down for a cosy night. We woke a few times, listening to the patter of rain on the tent and the owls in the trees. We may have been adventurers at home, but we could have been anywhere.

Riverbugging: my husband’s highlight

What is it, you ask? Riverbugging is fairly new so we love introducing guests to this slightly mad concept. You lay face down, face first on a small inflatable raft. Or in my case, an upturned bread tray in a paddling pool. Then you paddle paddle paddle with your hands, speeding down river and navigating rapids along the way. It’s hilarious. And I’ll be honest, way more fun than having your husband chuck a bucket of water in your face. Repeatedly. Because apparently one take wasn’t enough…

It was the only way we could think of to recreate ‘rapids’ and the feeling you get plummeting downstream with your face just inches above the water. Having the dog lick water off my face just added insult to an already quite humiliating experience. Still, if laughter is good for you, my god I was on top of the world!

Abseiling without a harness

Don’t worry, safety is always a priority here at Adventure Tours UK, even when it’s just the two of us. It’s true, we couldn’t find a harness between us so we had to improvise with some badly wrapped rope. However I find abseiling terrifying at the best of times (I have a deep fear of heights) so there was no way I was taking any chances. The only thing going vertical in this home abseiling adventure was the camera!

With the old Batman TV shows of the 60’s for inspiration, we found a suitably rocky backdrop for filming. By the way, if you’re wondering why we have a small crater at home, this is the beginning of Jim’s garage project which went on hold over winter and now seems to be on hold indefinitely while we wait for life (and finances) to return to something like normal.

Coordination was the challenge here. Without gravity to assist it was hard to remember whether to move my left or right hand, or even my feet first! After several attempts at shuffling backwards along the driveway (looking nothing at all like Batman) we finally got the movement and camera angle spot on. Well, adequate for a spoof video anyway.

But why?

Because staying at home is this best thing any of us can do right now. So instead of feeling bored and letting the desire to break the rules creep in, spilling into the streets and filling the parks. Instead of packing up the car and hoping you won’t get caught trying to drive to your usual haunts. We want to inspire everyone to stay at home! Because no matter how adventurous you are and no matter where you live, you can do this and you can make it fun.

Be an adventurer at home & share your stories

So get creative and join in the fun. Yes we’re lucky to have a large garden to do what we did. But quite frankly the inside of our house is a disaster zone, plus a few of our experiences involved a lot of water. So whether you have a garden or balcony, a living room or a hallway, re-imagine your favourite experience and join the growing movement of adventurers at home!

Stay home. Stay safe. Support our NHS. And save lives.

Share your videos and photos using #foradventurersathome on Instagram or facebook and we’ll give you a shout out!