My mother has let me know that she’s willing to cover the cost of the Wild Africa Trek for the two of us as a combo bday/xmas present for me during our trip! The ‘animal’ parts of the Animal Kingdom are my absolute favorite things on any Disney trip, so I’m am super-geeked to be thinking about doing the tour!!
My only problem – I’ve got a mild fear of heights. It’s just unsupported/“open” heights that bother me (being on the roof of my house to repair my chimney this summer, for example, was no fun at all). On the other hand, I’ve done ropes courses before a few stories off the ground with no problems – being strapped into the harness on the course and having something to hold onto made it fine for me. I gather that the tour is the same set-up? Are there rope “handrails” all the way across the bridges? How high off the ground are you? I’ve watched some POV videos on youtube but it’s hard to get a real sense of scale.
Wild Africa Trek is awesome. If you can do a rope course, you can do it. The rope bridges have rope railings you can hold onto and you are in a harness that is secured to an overhead rope. The views as you walk over the bridges are fabulous.
The cable you see behind my head is attached the the harness I’m wearing and to a heavy cable overhead. It’s made to look like boards are missing, but there is netting in the gaps. I get shaky on top of an 8’ ladder, but has NO problem with this.
1 Like
I agree with @DreamLaughImagine and @bswan26.
I think the bridge is about the same height as a high ropes element and the harness you are strapped into is basically the same.
My mother has a pretty serious fear of unsupported/open heights. She won’t go anywhere near a Ferris wheel. She enjoys roller coasters when she can’t see the track (Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mt, even Rockin Roller Coaster). She rode Flight of the Hippogriff at Universal (which is the same thrill level as BTM, but only a track) with her hands clamped on the bar and eyes tight shut. She did not have any issues with the bridge on the Wild Africa Trek. The harness makes you feel very secure and there is hand height cable the whole way.
Thanks for the info everyone! That is exactly the answer I wanted to hear – I want to do this so badly, but I was just having visions of myself freaking out at the bridge part. Glad to know it’s enough like the ropes course I’ve done (and enough unlike being on a roof / at the top of a ladder) that I should be fine.
1 Like
