They call them Ziplines today . . . they're all the rage! As of today, Copper Canyon in Mexico boasts the world's longest one, but no doubt someone is working on a bigger, better one. In today's world, it's ALL about bigger and better . . . scarier . . . more death defying. Tirolesa is found in The Parque de Adventura Barrancas del Cobre and is 8,350 long . . . at a 17% grade that drops you almost 1,500 feet . . . reaching speeds of 80+ MPH. At the age of 53, this sounds terrifying to me . . . I just don't know if I'd have the courage to do it! Just watching the video makes my stomach hurt.
There's even a zipline that will take you from Spain to Portugal. The 2,362 foot line takes you right across the Guadiana River . . . no passport necessary . . . and you can ride the ferry right back.
But . . . back in the 70's . . . when I was young . . . when fear had not yet coiled itself around the neurons in my brain, I did some really crazy things! And having mostly boys for friends ensured that I would do some pretty dangerous things . . . as you will no doubt! Boys . . . well . . . boys don't really think about what "could happen" . . . at least most of the time!
Between New Base Housing, where I lived, and Old Base Housing, where a lot of my friends lived, there was a pretty good sized wooded area. One of the base pools was located somewhere in there . . . so was the Girl Scout Hut . . . and it butted up next to the cliffs that overlooked the ocean. Those woods just smelled of adventure, and you were likely to find us deep in them most of the day . . . building forts, playing hide-and-seek and rounds of war games, sneaking onto the beach, climbing trees, eating wild fruits like pomegranate and figs, catching chameleons. We were wild boys then!
We found an old, unusable bicycle once, and after taking the thing apart to use it for various other purposes, we finally figured out a use for the handlebars.
Scavenging from junk piles was a common practice . . . you never knew what treasure you'd find . . . or what use those treasures would be. The SeaBees got rid of a LOT of stuff, and sailors heading for home in the U.S. would dump things they couldn't pack in their home goods into hidden places in the woods, so we had tons of stuff squirreled away in our forts.
Someone remembered we had a long piece of heavy duty rope . . . and now we had this bicycle handlebar. The idea was to climb up into the tallest tree and tie one end of the rope as high as possible . . . securing the other end to the base of another tree to create our newest adventure! We took turns climbing to the top of that tree, bicycle handle in tow, to slide down that rope. You had to make sure you timed your drop right though or you'd wind up face first in the dirt!
It's a wonder none of were seriously injured or outright killed in those woods . . . given some of the things we did. Oh, there were bruises, scrapes and cuts . . . battle scars we wore with pride! No one dared to run home to mom or dad with such minor wounds . . . we would have never been allowed to play in the woods again!
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all." ~ Helen Keller
No comments:
Post a Comment