Scared? I sure was but still did it.

So do I!!!
I just would never, ever contemplate doing that.
My palms are all sweaty thinking about it.

Something I`ve always wanted to do, but have never had the chance, is wing walking. Even now, I`d love to give it a go. My kids think I`m mad!

sharon103

You are brave muse!
I only do what I'm comfortable with. I don't like heights and I wouldn't fancy going underground either.

That's what a passion for history does for me. At the time, I was in the middle of a study about the area and found the main occupation was working in the lead mines. Many of the families had come over from Ireland to live and work there.

Callistemon Thanks for the link. I will follow it up. If I remember correctly, the youngest child I found in my study was nine. Life expectance - lucky if you lived beyond 50.

Paraglide in Greece. That was great for a middle aged woman in the eighties. Then there was a balloon ride twenty years ago which was great. A couple of helicopter rides in Hawaii and New Zealand where we got off on a glacier in the brightest sun ever.

Years ago, parasailing while on holiday. Dds had done it and were saying, Go on, Mum! I knew I’d hate it, but also knew they’d call me a wimp if I didn’t, so I went - and hated it.

Nowadays I’m old enough to say a firm no thanks to anything I know I’m going to hate, and I couldn’t give a monkey’s if anyone thinks I’m a wimp.

You are brave muse!
I only do what I'm comfortable with. I don't like heights and I wouldn't fancy going underground either.

I have an interest in Egyptology. I have squeezed into and crawled through some really scary tombs. I most have been crazy looking back on it.

Luckily there was a long, less steep way down.

I got an upset stomach on the way down.

I looked down!

Yes, there wasn't any footholds; the guide had to place his foot somewhere and we had to use that to lever ourselves up.
I was wearing flipflops, too!
We started off with a leisurely walk across a suspended wooden slanted bridge, with no rope rails.

MissAdventure

Climbed up the Atlas mountains.
I didn't want to climb, but I was nervous of waiting back for hours while my (more adventurous) friend went.
It was horrific.
I spent all of the climb crying and clinging round the guide's neck.
We had thought it was a trip to see the mountains.
To say I was petrified is an understatement.

I went rock climbing once with someone who was quite experienced but with no ropes or anything. It was a terrible experience and I think I developed a fear of heights from that time.

Back in the 1960s. I went down Lynemouth Colliery in Northumberland. It went two miles out under the North Sea, but it was a big modern mine and big cutting machinery was used so all the tunnels were a bit like being on the tube.

I have also been down the mine near Wakefield, where te National Mining Museum is based. They turn the lights off at one point and then tell you about the three year olds who sat in the dark all day opening and shutting a door as the trucks of coal came through, pushed by their mothers.

I do not suffer claustrophobia somewhere like the above where it is all organised and a way out, but I hate being trapped in crowds. I will take along alternative route, even on foot, to avoid crods and hate, hate, hate, any stadium event because of the feeling of being trapped in a crowd.

No paragraphs.

Climbed up the Atlas mountains.
I didn't want to climb, but I was nervous of waiting back for hours while my (more adventurous) friend went.
It was horrific.
I spent all of the climb crying and clinging round the guide's neck.
We had thought it was a trip to see the mountains.
To say I was petrified is an understatement.

First sentence, muse, I'm right with you.

After that and hearing other posters' experiences I experienced the same unpleasant feelings I have once I am shut in and really unable to move. And that's just reading. A friend and I went on a picnic one Sunday in the Mendips when I was still at school. We were accompanied by two young male friends who were going to do some pot-holing. My one and only experience wasn't too bad : we actually clambered with them down into the first cave (easily accessed from the middle of a large bush!). I sat on a rock while they went struggled and slid down a 'chimney' into a chamber below. After about 20 minutes I was concerned - no noise, no voices in response to our calls. I dropped a pebble - then we got some noise, quite a few strong words as the pebble bounced on the helmet of one of the guys as it gave him a fright. Not sure how long they struggled to get further below, but it made me feel a bit panicky and I was glad to see them again and to climb out of the bush onto a sunny hillside (to the amazement of some walkers).

When my children were small, I was persuaded to go into one of the Welsh gold mines. Can't recall which one. This is possibly because the experience was so awful. No climbing just a good, slippery walk to reach the main cave where a pompous and very stupid old 'guide' gave us all a lecture on the history of the mine and then, without warning and to 'give us the experience', turned off every light. I actually couldn't breathe and when the lights finally came back on, I only wanted to punch him in the face! I've been in other caves - Wookey Hole being one - but never had someone in charge of a huge party of people behave so stupidly.

Caves, narrow places, tight high steps in castles, places from which there is no retreat, are now definitely not for me. Alton Towers? Not sure what fortunes would have to change hands for me to participate. But some, often young, people thrive on the adrenaline rush! I honestly can't imagine paying to be scared witless. Each to his own, however!

We visited a tin mine in Cornwall. They didn`t take us very far in, we went in at ground level, but the passage was so narrow, I doubt I`d get down there now without getting stuck!

My husband was six foot three welbeck, I'm five foot two, he was nervous too but it made sense for me to go. I was also a bit nervous to stay outside with the men selling items, they were so pushy and shoving things into our faces.

welbeck

that sounds horrid.
why didn't your husband take the boy in, then you could have waited outside with the girl ?

Perhaps because Shandy plucked up her courage and did it because she might never pass that way again?

I'd have done the same, Shandy, DS has been with me on some trips when others wouldn't go and we've never regretted it.

No, I was a bit earlier than that Shandy but can't remember the actual year.

that sounds horrid.
why didn't your husband take the boy in, then you could have waited outside with the girl ?

How funny Kim, I wonder if we were there at the same time! 2009 for me. I'm sure H&S was out the window.

I went into the pyramids in Cairo with my son, my daughter was too short and not allowed so my husband stayed outside with her.

I do suffer with claustrophobia but knew we'd never go back again, and my son was so excited, so I screwed up my courage. I regretted it almost instantly as we crouched into the dark deep tunnel, bent double, we had to walk on ladder rungs, just slats of wood to stop us slipping, along with hundreds of other people coming back out. I had a long skirt on and flip flops and kept stepping on the skirt, and there hardly seemed to be any air at all. Probably some poor mother in there right now, wishing she hadn't agreed!

I remember having to go backwards and semi crouching down into the heart of a pyramid. Half way down I began to feel totally claustrophobic but was in the middle of a group and somehow held my cool. All of the guide's informative spiel went completely over my head. I did ask if I could make my way out alone but another group was already making its way down. He did allow me to go immediately ahead of him on the way out and said I should try for the Olympics!

I remember being at “Summerlee” a heritage museum with a small mock-up of a coal mine.
We were travelling back on the tram. Also onboard was a gran with two young boys decked out in new, shiny replica Celtic kits. ( and we know how expensive they are) They were manky! She looked on in despair saying “ what will your mum say”
I couldn’t resist suggesting “they look like they’ve been down a coal mine!”