At home in England she takes part in a number of sports such as cycling, horse-riding and also rock climbing. So while she was here she was keen to take the girls to City Rock, Cape Town's indoor rock climbing center in Observatory.
They can climb from the age of 5 so Niave was just old enough, silly me thought she wouldn't cope with the rope climbing and so she spent the first part being very frustrated at not being able to climb as high as she wanted to go in the "bouldering" section, after a few tantrums and a couple of meltdowns we finally managed to convince her to wear the special shoes that they hire out and when she tried the rope climbing in the "auto-billet" section she was like a duck in water!! Niave is a climber and looked somewhat like a natural attached to that rope dangling half a metre above my head!
Abigail went straight to the auto-billet rope, she had been once before with a friend and felt comfortable there. She was exhausted at the end as she really had a good workout, her arms must have been aching!
It was very interesting to see the differences in personality, Niave gets frustrated, voices her frustration loudly but will NOT give up, Abigail persists quietly to a point and then wants to give up. She did very well though as Bev pushed her to persevere and she did - far more than she would have on her own.
It is a great outing if you have "climbers" and an excellent activity to develop shoulder girdle strength - a common area of concern with children who have low muscle tone and struggle to sit at a desk (i.e. the children who end up lying on their work!).
Some pictures:
Niave "bouldering"
Abigail - "roped up" and ready to go.
Bev and Abs having a go.
Spider girl!
Niave having a turn on the auto-billet rope - the picture of determination!
In this section Bev was attached to Abigail and "held" her up or brought her down manually as opposed to the auto-billet where it happens automatically - obviously!!
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