An adrenaline filled trip to the Jungle Parc

But last Sunday at the Jungle Parc, Santa Ponsa, I experienced the adrenaline high myself and I felt alive, just like the cliché. As the name suggests, the park offers an acrobatic adventure amongst the treetops. The objective is to follow a set course making your way from tree to tree using bridges, ropes and zip wires. As I went up in the trees I remembered how 10 metres feel so much higher looking down than looking up.

I kicked off from the first platform under the canopy of leaves and zipped along the zip-line slide landing with a whoop of absolute "I did it!" thrill, a whoop which had to squeeze past my heart that was also in my throat at the time. Maybe we adults really do take ourselves too seriously and need to let the child out every now and again.

The Jungle Parc has three courses with one hundred platforms for adults and children. Participants are given the correct safety gear, clear instructions, a test course and unobtrusive but constant supervision by rescue and rope trained personnel. Once you have your instructions, you are sent off into the trees to tackle a course, at your own pace. Kids as young as four and at least 1.05 metres tall can have a blast, and I speak from experience, having watched my son and his friends on the Pirates course on numerous fun-filled days out. If your kids are under 1.35 metres tall, this course is the only one they are admitted onto and you will need to watch them from the ground.

The Jungle Parc is now in its sixth season. Partner-owner, the French Céline Gadois tells me that when next season starts on 1st May 2012, the kids' course will have had a complete make-over, increasing the current three levels to seven and doing away with one of the two compulsory ‘carabiners' (the oblong metal rings that hook you onto lifelines 100% of the time) by replacing it with a continuous hook-up to the lifeline. She also enthuses that it will be higher, harder and much more fun for the little ones. Oh joy.

Back to the business of the grown-ups; they have a choice of two courses; the 'ordinary' Explorador course; and I add the inverted commas with irony as this is the course I did and there was nothing ordinary about it. It has little side tracks that allow you to be more daring, tackling slightly harder platforms every now and then, assuming you like the look of them. With varying levels of difficulty, you are confronted with ropes to walk along, slides to zip down and wooden planks to wobble over. This is a great wake-up call for your motor skills. It is a brilliant idea for schools, team building office outings and hen or stag parties (prior to the alcohol consumption).

If you are sporty and have some prior rope experience, the Extremo course is for you. It has 30 activities, longer zip-lines and generally requires a bit more ‘umph'; perfect for adrenaline junkies.

The ropes are fastened onto the trees without nails, using pressure only and safety is the first priority. So while we're on the topic, let's talk safety for a second. You are obliged to wear one of the park's safety harnesses, fitted with two carabiners, which you clip and un-clip alternately as you move from one stage to the next. So, if you happen to lose your footing, you will be caught by the harness at all times. Should you feel unable to continue the course, one of the trained instructors will lower you to the ground safely from any point on the course.

Can anyone do it? Gadois says, "As long as you understand what you have to do, you can do the course." The only restrictions are for those with medical conditions.

There is a kiosk on site and getting to the Jungle Parc by bus is extremely easy as the 104 and 110B TIB but stops right outside the park at the 'Club Nautico' bus stop.

I squeezed my visit in just before the end of the summer season. Anyone wishing to go will have to wait until it re-opens in the spring. The park is open from 1st May to 20th June from 10am to 6pm Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays and from 20th June to 10th September from 10am to 6.30pm every day except Mondays and from 10th September to 1st November from 10am to 5.30pm Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays.