On Sunday, we drove to the "Meža kaķis" adventure park, which means "Forest Cat".
The team is assembled
The gist of the park's entertainment is as follows. Steel and rope cables are stretched between the trees, with various obstacles attached to them like nets, bungee swings, steps suspended on ropes, and tightropes that you have to cross while playing the part of a circus performer. Platforms are built on the trees, where you end up after finishing an obstacle. In total, the park has four tracks differing by difficulty level - green, blue, red, and black. On the green track, all obstacles are very simple and are at a height of 2-3 meters. But by the black one, the fun turns into something akin to a special ops training ground located 15 meters up in the air. And like crazy people, we climbed up there with our own money, hehe. This kind of fun costs $17 for 3 hours, but if you linger, nobody's gonna kick you out. The price supposedly even includes health insurance.
A place for kids and cowards
Everything starts with getting the safety harness, which consists of three connected straps - two around the legs and one around the torso. Attached to the straps are two carabiners and one pulley block meant for zip-lining. On top of that, they give you gloves dipped in colored rubber so that visitors don't scrape their hands until they bleed. Despite the rubber, the gloves turn into rags by the end of the visit, so it makes sense that you don't have to return them.
Training section
Getting the aforementioned gear can take a while due to a hefty queue (it's the weekend, what do you expect). After getting the "go-ahead" to move forward, the instructor shows you how to properly use the equipment. The rules are simple and there are only a few of them, but I still didn't understand one of them because they were explaining it in Latvian. Anyway, they quickly corrected me.
Ready to go
The rules are as follows: 1) Clip the safety carabiner only to the red cable or the gold ring. 2) One of the carabiners must always be clipped on. Finished one obstacle — took off one carabiner from your waist, clipped it to the safety cable on the platform. Took off the second carabiner from the safety cable of the previous obstacle, attached it to the safety cable of the next obstacle. This way, you're always clipped in, and the worst that can happen to you is a sprain or a bruise. 3) Clip the zip-line pulley only to the gold cable designed specifically for it. (This rule isn't always followed, but more on that later) 4) There should be only 1 person on an obstacle at a time, and two on the platform around the tree. It must be said that all the safety cables are steel, and look like they could easily hold several tons, which is good since under dynamic load (i.e., the acrobat's carcass falling down) the force can increase tenfold.
The start of the green track
I should mention that I weigh 110 kg at 178 cm tall, and overall my physical condition is far from ideal. So I was slightly apprehensive about demonstrating acrobatic marvels, and decided to first gauge how hard the tracks were, and which ones I shouldn't go on. However, it later turned out that no one asked me about that — my friends automatically assumed I would run after them like an athlete. So run I did, what else could I do. Anyway, first things first. In the "Forest Cat" park, I was glad for my tiny camera for the first time — you simply couldn't take any other kind in there. True, I had to whip it out and hide it at a machine-gun pace, but that's an acceptable tradeoff. What didn't please me at all, though, was the quality of the shots. Not the first time, however.
A toy obstacle
The first track is green, even a 7-year-old kid could pass it, that's how simple everything is there. Anyway, look at the photos. You feel like you're just taking a walk on it, plus you're full of energy at the start.
Alexey is readier than ever to face hardships
Like walking on asphalt
Toy obstacles behind, real ones ahead
The second track is blue, way more interesting already, but I went on it without hesitation since the green one was way too easy.
Funny little bridge, but you can't cross it hands-free
Ooo, it's not quite that low down there
First-person view
Basketball players can do it hands-free
This is the cat mountain where the park is located
Ooo, there's an abyss ahead
Conquerors of the blue track. Alexey's resolve has strengthened even more.
After the blue track you feel a light touch of tension and a bit of anxiety from the height. However, without any doubts or second thoughts, we rushed the red track. But we were quickly shut down, since there was a crazy crowd and a 20-minute line. Actually, it was for the best — before the red track, a break came in very handy, because it has a couple of truly stressful attractions, at least for yours truly
This is how the safety cable is tied to the carabiner. What knot this is — I won't say for now.
Valerych is always gallant with the ladies — a true knight
Sent the lady flying - and happy
Oh, crap!
In Natasha's eyes - all-consuming determination
Delicately testing the waters
Going down while rolling on the cable is a sheer pleasure
Especially when you're being pushed
And there's absolutely nothing to be afraid of here
One of the most difficult obstacles on the red track
A man standing on a tightrope, resting. 10 meters up.
After finishing the red track you don't really want to go anywhere, don't want to do anything either. However, the black track still lies ahead — its color brings up an association that well reflects its purpose. That maniac Lyokha did drag me up there after all, for which I thank him very much, because now I can almost honestly write that I've been on all four. Yet, on the black track I exceeded the limits of my capabilities, and ended up falling down anyway, so much so that I couldn't climb back up. Thank you friends, they helped out. There are almost no photos from the black track — had other things on our minds.
The black track is for special ops. It shows. And here I was rolling down the safety cable.
I tackled the remaining obstacles with a clever method invented by Natasha — you attach the pulley block to the safety cable and roll across as if on the special zipline cable.
Have you signed up for DOSAAF?
So exciting that he even stuck his tongue out
The splits
The last of the serious challenges on the black track
15 meters of height, whichever way you look at it
At the end of the black track, at a terrifying height, is a super-long cable for zip-lining down on the pulley. Actually, even that seems like a pleasant and simple amusement after some of the particularly devious obstacles of the black track. You bet — clip in and away you go, you're gonna land in a soft net and on a foam mattress anyway. After finishing the black track, you find yourself at the very bottom of "Kaķu kalns", that is Cat Mountain, on which all this madness is actually located. The famous Gauja river flows at its foot, but you don't care about the beauties of nature — you have to climb back up the mountain. After all the courageously endured trials, they tell you — don't relax, rookie, you still have to trudge back up the stairs. After three hours of decent physical exertion, this seems highly ironic and almost like the hardest challenge. And we still managed to go have a picnic on the grass near the Sigulda caves. Then we checked out the caves themselves, covered in century-old carvings saying "Vasya was here". Truly, there are no limits to the strength of bored office workers finally breaking loose for a getaway in nature. After stocking up on souvenirs with Sigulda symbols, we headed home. Shurik later admitted that for the last 50 km he drove the car on autopilot, barely aware of what was happening around him.
A few more photos and larger size on foto.izvne.com"