Sunday, August 31, 2008

WALKING IN THE TREES

Our vacation continues. As we last left our heros, they were camping in the Lake Annecy area in the French Alps. This area is gorgeous with mountains completely surrounding the lake. One day we decided to do to an activity for Meghan. We picked something called La Foret de l'Aventure. It is a high wire act strung from tree to tree with the exit back to the ground on a zip line. So when the title says "walking in the trees" it really means walking "up" in the trees.

The first step is to get the instructions and the "death" talk. Well, actually we had to pay the money first but I am sure everyone already understood this would cost money. After all it is a tourist area.

Here Meghan is being instructed on how to use her safety lines. We wore rock climbing harnesses with 2 safety lines. We received clear instructions to always be clipped in with one line at all times.Once you receive your instructions you are then sent off on your own. Of course Susie and I were scared to death and Meghan is blasting off ahead of us. The basic design is that there are cable lines between the trees for your hands and very unstable footholds.

Here Meghan is high above the lake and she has to reach her foot out to the next log. The logs are connected to the hand lines by ropes so as you reach your foot out, the log moves (a lot).


The best part is the zip line down. There were 5 different sections so we had 5 zip lines down. Susie is enjoying the trip down.In this section there was a cargo net that you climbed across. If you look closely at the tree Meghan is approaching, there is a red cable that you clip in your safety line once you get on the platform.Here is the zip line down. Meghan is already down and waiting on us to catch up.

We spent almost 3 hours going through the trees. At the end we were asked how we liked the adventure. Susie responded with her limited French with a new phrase that joins French and English together. She responded to the question of how much she liked it with "very tres bien". All the French employees laughed and now the phrase is part of our family's language.

She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed.

Proverbs 3:18


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Dave, Susie & Meghan. It was great talking to you today. After the webcam setup it reminded me to check out your blog. It looks like you are having a great time. Does Dave ever really go to work? We miss you all. Steve, Lisa, Lauren and Erica.

PS. I think Meghan has a natural gift for computer web support.

Anonymous said...

When I saw the paragliding, I thought, maybe I could do that. But when I say the Walking in the trees, all I could say was "No way, no how!"

Shoe Queen

Carol K said...

Ditto for me. How did Susie ever pull it off? I can't imagine being that high up off the ground on those little wooden logs. Yikes!

Carol