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The kingdom’s climbing enthusiasts finally have a place to unleash their inner Tarzan as Adventure Hub has made its mark as one of Bahrain’s most exciting indoor entertainment centres, writes Kristian Harrison.
The location, at Galleria Mall in Zinj, is already proving popular after its opening in August, and GulfWeekly was invited to test out the plethora of walls, nooks, crannies and caves.
Spread over 6,000 square feet, Adventure Hub offers family-friendly indoor entertainment in the form of a full-size obstacle course, high ropes course, low ropes course, rock climbing wall, low climbing wall, fun walls, caving and a soft play area.
Manager Alex Lisnyank believes that the wide variety of physical exercises available will prove a huge attraction for all ages. The Ukranian said: “The main idea of the place was to provide an indoor entertainment centre where you can bring your kids and take them away from digital entertainment, and put them in a physical environment where they can develop their agility and strength, and overcome fear of heights.
“We have walls and rope courses for various levels, so that there is something for everyone. There’s walls where children can try climbing for the first time and build their confidence before tackling larger walls, and there’s a higher wall for adults to practice with routes of varying difficulties.
“In regards to safety, we have European-certified harnesses and helmets, with a continuous belay line on the rope courses so there’s no chance for the participant to fall, as unlike other places they don’t have to unhook and clip onto another line to continue.
“Our instructors also have undergone rigorous training and are always on hand to help and assist. We’ve taken no shortcuts.”
Yours truly and my friend, Hassan Abdulla, were itching to get started and couldn’t wait to be fitted with our harnesses and helmets by the friendly team.
After that, it was straight to the ‘Rocktopia’ wall. This offers routes of varying difficulties for beginners, intermediate level and advanced sports climbers. Having dabbled in climbing when I was younger in the UK, I decided to have a quick run on the easy-level blue and yellow routes, before nailing the green intermediate trail.
There was not a chance I was tackling the red route, though, with its tiny footholds that I’d barely fit my big toe on!
With the fingers and the biceps aching, it was time to relax with a jaunt through the cave system … or so I thought. As it turned out, this was the most challenging part of the day.
There are two caves, supposedly one is easier than the other with a wider diameter and shape. Hassan wisely gave the caves a wide berth, and much to my shame he spent the time wildly amused watching me try and fail to squirm my way on screen.
Furthermore, I was too stubborn to make use of the multiple emergency exits, preferring to power through and reach the end. After what seemed like an eternity, I made it through. I’ll never forget the feeling of having a small kid basically run through the thing, wait for me at the end, and point and laugh at me when I walked out.
Much more fun was the obstacle course, which is pretty tough but in a rewarding way. The plethora of ropes, planks, tyres and other obstacles provide a stern challenge, particularly as you are suspended 20 feet in the air.
Some of the bridges and platforms required good balance and a long stride to get over.
For the younger visitors, the soft play area, filled with brightly-coloured tubes, tunnels, channel nets and slides was the place where all the action was taking place.
The ‘big-uns’ were aiming for a higher challenge. Hassan and I decided to have a few races up the twin climbing walls, where the handholds are laid out in the exact same pattern on adjacent walls. An instructor presses the timer and first to whack the button at the top wins.
In the first race, I used my previous climbing experience to soar to the top and claim a comfortable victory. Hassan fought back in the next race, using his superior strength to go for riskier handholds.
In the third round, it was neck-and-neck on the wall and, being a couple of inches taller, when we got near the top I decided to go for a ‘Hail Mary.’ I sprung, stretched out for the button … and felt the agonising disappointment as my finger brushed the wall a millimetre underneath it. It continued to flash bright red, highlighting my shame as I slid down the wall on the rope.
I wasn’t leaving without another go, though, and in the fourth race it was again extremely close. However, having gained more confidence after an hour on the walls, I decided to take a more difficult, yet faster, route up. We both hit the button pretty much at the same time, and it wasn’t until we got to the bottom and saw the timing screens that we could declare the winner.
Thankfully, it was me with a time of 17.21 seconds, ahead of Hassan’s 17.43 seconds!
That was enough excitement for one day and we called it an even ‘score draw’, so we got out of harnesses and helmets and over refreshment in the upstairs café, decided we’d love to come back again in future and renew our rivalry.
I might sneak in a bit more training before the day.
The hub is open every day from 10am-11pm, with a variety of packages on offer. For more information, call 77103355 and follow on Facebook and Instagram @adventurehubme
