This year I have made it my personal mission to get out more, do more, and challenge myself with different experiences.
I spoke some of these into existence in my 22 before 22 bucket list, and have been slowly ticking them off. Rock climbing wasn’t on my list, but when I was invited to try it out by Bookado, I bit the bullet and said yes, since another thing I’ve been trying to do is say yes to new opportunities!
Bookado are a brand new day-out booking platform. Not too dissimilar from sites like Booking.com, only Bookado helps you find – you guessed it – things to DO. From kayaking to archery, there’s something on the site that you can find to do near you.
Not only will it be awesome for you to find, book and do things in your home city, but you can discover new activities in the places you visit up and down the country.
Back in August, my parents and I headed over to Loughborough – an hour and a half away from Stoke.
We arrived at The Climbing Station for our rock climbing session and got straight into warming up before attaching ourselves to the wall.
I’ve not really done rock climbing before, besides those times you do taster sessions in middle school, so it was a totally new experience for me.
First off, we climbed a wall attached to the safety harness and rope, guided by our instructor. Different coloured holds on the wall represent varying levels of difficulty. After attempting the easy route, we were invited to have a crack at the reds.
Upon reaching the top of the wall a few times (which is terrifyingly high), we abseiled down, unclipped ourselves, and headed over to the bouldering section.
Bouldering is a type of rock climbing that doesn’t use safety harnesses or ropes. The wall was not a flat, tall wall, but rather mimicked that of actual rocks. I found this part so much harder, since I no longer had the physical or mental safety of the harness. It was great fun though, and we had plenty of support and guidance from our instructor.
Lastly, we had a crack at the ‘roof’, where you climb holds that leave you parallel to the ground. You need a lot of core strength to do that part, but hey – you have to give it a go.
At The Climbing Station, they change the holds around every week, so you rarely climb the same route twice. It was a great challenge, and also a bit of a team-building task for my parents and I. Now that we all work full-time, it’s rare we get to do things like this together.
I can’t wait for Bookado to launch in even more areas, as it will give me an excuse to get out and explore different parts of the UK!
