Are you scared of heights?? Rock Reef will sort it!!

Last week we were lucky enough to be given the chance of trying out Bournemouth`s newest indoor attraction Rock Reef, an indoor climbing centre with a difference.

Situated on the end of Bournemouth Pier, the location is unique, the concept is unique...in fact the whole of Rock Reef is unique!!

Rock Reef gives you 4 attractions in one place, bringing the great outdoors indoors.

The 4 elements of Rock Reef are -

• Clip`N`Climb challenges - the new climbing concept taking the world by storm. You wear a harness and are clipped onto a belay - an automatic safety device which keeps you safe at all times. You are then free to climb to hearts content in the knowledge you cant fall!!! There are 25 different designed walls to challenge even the most experienced climbers.

• HighLine - an indoor aerial obstacle course designed to test your nerves. Hanging above the ground with nothing beneath your feet but a few ropes and logs for you to make your way around the course.

• The Pier Cave - delve into The Pier Cave with its twists and turns, ball pits and grottos. Make your way through the cave with or without the expert help of the guides.

• The Pier Zip - opening mid August 2014. The worlds FIRST pier to shore zip line experience...launch yourself from the top of massive launch tower and zoom down to the beach. But dont forget to take in the amazing views of the Bournemouth coastline.

We arranged to go to Rock Reef with my fellow blogger theprmummy and her family. The kids were so excited they ran up the pier giddy with the idea that they were going to be climbing a wall!!!

On arrival we filled out the obligatory safety waiver and then we were ready for our Rock Reef experience.
Our guides for the evening were Georgia and DJ; I have to say they made the experience so much more enjoyable as they put us all at ease and had a way with the kids to keep them involved and alert during the safety talks.

We all got kitted out with some rather fetching safety harnesses and were off. Georgia and DJ showed us over and over again how to clip ourselves onto the belay so we could do it ourselves. Showed us how to climb the walls and then left us to do our own thing at our own pace, they were always with us in case we needed them but never felt watched.

Now I have no upper body strength so assumed I would struggle but actually found it fairly easy and OMG so much fun!!!!!

Look at me!!!

The kids completely astounded me as they were naturals; up the walls at lightning speed and had no fear in leaning back off the wall and letting go so the belay could bring them back down slowly.

The two youngest of the pack, Jacob and Myla had a few hairy moments when they were not sure if they could do it but soon overcame their fears.

Do I look sexy??

There are two additional activities you can do whilst at Rock Reef; the Leap of Faith and the Vertical Drop Slide. Of course hubby had to both!! He had to wear a boiler suit and helmet for the Vertical Drop, which we all thought was hilarious as he was melting in the suit and the heatwave conditions!! You hold onto a bar whilst you are pulled up as high/long as you can hold on for then let go and slide down.

The Leap of Faith is a vertical climb up to a platform which you then jump off of to try and catch a punch bag and hold on......there was no way I was going to try that!!!!



Check out the videos of what he did.

Next came the HighLine.....from below the course didn`t look too high up and quite an easy task to complete.....OMG how wrong was I???? I have never had a panic attack in my life but I have to say that I was on the verge of having one that day!!! Alfie went on in front of me and kept sating `come on mum its ok` so I couldn`t let him see my fears. I was literally dripping with sweat due to the nerves. Even though I knew I was harnessed in and couldn`t fall I just couldn`t stop shaking. It was mine and Emma`a hubby's turn to watch the babies so were giving us support from ground level, still that honestly didn`t help much!!



About 5 minutes in to the course Alfie did freeze with fear and would not budge so Stan the crazy man harnessed himself up and came to help him, he was amazing and helped Alfie get over his fear by telling him step by step what to do.

This has to be one of the scariest things I`ve ever done!

30 minutes later and 1 stone in weight loss later due to sweating I made it round, I have never been so glad to see a solid floor!!!

Emma too made it round in one piece and am so proud of her for overcoming her fear of heights.

How happy do we look to of finished the HighLine??

Sadly we didn`t have time to try out the Pier Cave experience but will definitely be back to give it a go and try to beat our times on the climbing walls!!

Visiting Rock Reef is a must, yes it is a bit pricey but it is definitely worth what you pay. Where else are you going to be able to say that you have climbed 25 different walls and taken the Leap of Faith???

Rock Reef gets 5*`s in our book and would say that you NEED to visit!!

A huge thanks to Juan, Georgia, DJ and Stan for making this an experience that we will never forget.

Our amazing team of instructors, Georgia, DJ and Stan.