Highwire

When we left yesterday’s blip, I was just about to go down the world’s fastest zip line (Velocity, located in Penrhyn Quarry, Snowdonia) having successfully completed the low level wire and survived a very rocky and bumpy three mile ascent of the mountain in an open top 4x4.
Unfortunately, when I got down I found that Mrs C had not received my text saying when I was setting off. Fortunately, she had filmed a lot of the runs, but the big question was, did I feature in any of them? I knew I had been on the inside line. I also knew that I was next to a chap in an orange jacket. And I knew that someone (might have been orange jacket man) had been singing Happy Birthday on the way down to one of the others in that group.
Bearing those criteria in mind, I did manage to find a video that fitted the bill and a bit of judicious freeze framing and image expanding resulted in this - admittedly blurry - shot of me attempting to grin at where I thought Mrs C was standing. We weren’t allowed to wave on the way down, and even turning my head was quite an effort. The video did show how fast the ride was though. When you’re actually on the wire, there aren’t any reference points - especially over the water - to gauge your speed by. It’s only because I ride a motorbike that I knew I was moving pretty quickly because of the buffeting from the wind rushing past. And any illusion that you were going slowly was soon shattered by the almighty jerk as you hit the braking mechanism at the end of the run.
A great day out. The weather was warm and sunny, I had a lovely lunch, and then rounded the day off with an adrenaline inducing high speed ride down the wire. Even got back to the flat in time to replace a dodgy shower seal before settling down for the evening, so that was a bonus. Mind you, the excitement of the day caught up with me after tea. After struggling to stay awake through The Great British Bake Off, I eventually gave in to the tiredness and was in bed by 10!