Roxilla

“Don’t look down, don’t look down…”

So on Sunday morning, we ventured out to Silvermine for a fun morning shlepping up mountains, abseiling down mountains, hauling ass back up mountain and then missioning down mountain again.

It was a perfect day, with just a bit wind towards lunchtime, but otherwise warm with enough cloud to prevent us from collapsing on the hike up. Lots of people had canceled, so we ended up being the only ones doing it – plus we also got a bit of a lesson on climbing and ropes and such.

I went down first, and after getting into our harnesses, hats and gloves, and getting the safety checks and whatnot, I ventured past the tape to the edge of the cliff. Despite being very high up, it wasn’t that scary… maybe it was because I was just so exhausted after a heavy week and hardly any sleep, but it felt calm, and silent and peaceful up there. After I got clipped in, and turned around and went to the edge there was a brief moment of shaking legs, but then I leaned back and let the rope slacken a bit, and I was just amped to get down that mountain.

Going down was fun, my hands felt numb and weak from the friction, and I took it a bit slow, but I got to look down and admire the view. Then I got to the cliff overhang, where the free fall would begin. My feet almost didn’t want to let go, but then I relaxed again and I let my rope slacken a bit, and suddenly I was hanging in the air, spinning just a bit, high above the forests, paths and dams of Silvermine and beyond. I had to use both hands on my rope to get more control – I didn’t want to go down too fast, and wanted to savour the moment a bit. Then I decided it was time to go down, and I had a nice fast mission down and managed to land perfect – on a rock, sitting down smoothly. It was awesome.

After watching the man come down (and giggling to myself when he almost crash landed into a bush) and he’d been unleashed from all the gear, we made our way up back to the top. While it wasn’t that far up, it was pretty much a vertical hike. There was no path, just a lot of rocks, logs and a tiny bit of ground. Luckily for me I had someone to drag me up, for a short-ass like me I never would have made it up otherwise.

We chilled for a bit, then suddenly realised it was lunchtime, so made our way back down. A lovely lunch at Brass Bell, and then I came home to work. My legs were feeling weak even on the walk down, and by yesterday morning they were seriously stiff and sore. Today a bit better, but sheesh… quite a work out that was.

On the plus side, I have now suddenly started to understand the whole ‘adventure sport’ thing. I am super amped to go abseiling again, and while I’m a bit iffy about climbing, I’m thinking bungee or river rafting is the next step. And more hiking!

P.S. By the way, that ain’t me in the pic.