Zip-lining & Forest Walk

- We arrived at Griffin Falls Camp in the heart of the Mabira Forest! Our planned adventure was a nature walk together and then for Sam and I to go zip lining while Lisa watched from the ground. Upon arrival we found out that the plan wouldn’t really work because the distance zip lined is so far! After heartfelt encouragement of my faith in her, Lisa bravely agreed to join in the fun. She asked “can a 67 year old women like me with no experience do it?” And our guide responded “Yes! You don’t know experience, we are the ones with experience. You can trust us!” And that she did :) We began the walk with our guides Hakeem and Hussain. We came to the spot to begin and it was literally a massive tree with small metal foot rests/hand holes that looked like heavy duty staples 😂 I happily went first and about halfway up started thinking I made the wrong choice to convince Lisa and Sam who were both deeply afraid of heights to join in. I made my way to top and Lisa went next. Thinking that if Sam could see HER do it, it would give him the reassurance that he could do it too, it was both of their first time. She loudly prayed the whole way up and I was soooo proud of her! Sam was next and although he was shaken and was laughing so hard he was crying, he made it to the top as well.
- Then began the actual zip-lining! It was 7 different zip lines, all through the rainforest tree tops! I loved every single minute of it and about halfway through, Lisa and Sam’s fear started to lessen and their confidence built. Lisa said what got her through was our guide Hakeem’s continual reassurance that he had her, even telling her to look into his eyes instead of down when she felt most nervous. It happened to be Lisa’s moms birthday, she had just past away about 2 years ago and this trip in part was a (generous) thank you to me for the support in planning the Celebration of Life. It was also to honor both parents who had dreamed of visiting Africa but never got the opportunity to. They had cultivated in Lisa a love of travel, appreciation for experiencing the beauty of people and nature. We sang “Happy Birthday” from the treetops and know Grandma Phyllis was smiling down on us. ❤️
- We made it safely back to the ground and with shakey legs, completed the rest of our forest walk. We saw the Falls and just as the walk came to an end, my dream came true and we were surrounded by Red Tailed Monkeys and Grey Cheeked Mangabay. They were swinging all above us and I was so excited to see them I literally just laid on the ground to get the best view 😂
- On our drive home we got the call that Sally and the kids were feeling better!! The kids had their backpacks packed and their binoculars from Lisa ready to go! We were sooo relived to know they could join us for the 2 safaris we had planned together!Read more