A Flying Edventure

The fort we flew around and over

(Andrew) On the 6explorers trip we try to mix education with adventures (edventures). We did an amazing job with that today when we went zip lining over a huge fort in Jodhpur, India.

We drove one hour to Mehrangarh Fort from our Thakur’s house which has been converted into an authentic hotel. Before India’s Independence, the Thakurs were the tax collectors of every area, so they were rich. When we arrived at the fort and got out of our colossal van, the Rajasthani sun beat down on our vulnerable heads. We quickly applied sunscreen and entered the enclosure. The high, red sandstone walls dwarfed our sizes. The fort was built 400 ft above the surrounding plains so the army could see 80 miles in every direction. Later we visited the palace with its intricately carved walls and arches. We got to see the spot where a four year old was crowned as the Maharaja (prince) in 1948, just after independence. This coronation was the last one because India had become a secular democracy but they squeaked this one in before it was abolished.

We followed the never ending signs that said “Flying Fox—>” until we finally reached the office. When we were just about to go into the office, a huge langur monkey leaped over our heads and scampered away. Then we had to sign our lives away. This was the draft of my last will and testament: my candy goes to Emma, Reis gets all my money and Alex gets anything left over. Pretty simple. Then we got locked up in some big, bulky harnesses. We had to put our cameras into shoulder bags and wear some black gloves that made my hands sweat. Then we went down to the practice zip. I was the first one to go. It was interesting, and I learned from doing it, but I went again to practice braking. When we walked up to the first one, I was really nervous. On my turn, legs bent, toes on the edge of the platform, leaning back, heart racing, he pushes me. I go. I was relieved of my stress half-way through when I realized that, “Hey, this is fun!” I let my legs dangle and I started to relax. The constant buzzing of moving quickly on the cable was the only thing I heard. It reminded me of thousands of angry bees in a huge swarm. I entered back into reality when my feet touched ground again. From this platform we got an amazing view of the fortress made entirely out of sandstone. The 6th, last, longest and scariest zip was ironically the most entertaining of all of them. Before I went, our guide told me that, “You have to, have to, have to go cannonballing on this one O.K.?” It turned out to be true because, even though I went in cannonball position, I stopped half of the way there, over a large pond. I had to turn around in my harness and pull myself along the cable like a monkey. Before I could reach the end, my arms got tired and the other guide came to the rescue. He zipped down, grabbed me and pulled us both back up. There’s a video of that zip below.

I was sad that it was over, but really happy to have my toes planted on the ground once again.