Abseiling in Atsitsa by Berny Woodward

Skyros Holidays facilitator Berny Woodward holds the UK Mountain Instructors Certificate and has extensive experience having worked in the RAF and as an Outdoor Adventure Instructor for over 20 years.

Here, Berny talks about his recent experience teaching abseiling at the Atsitsa Bay Centre on Skyros island, Greece (21 - 31 July 2012). 

Where else in the world can you go on holiday and have the opportunity to abseil into a mine shaft, abseil over overhangs and abseil into the warmth of the Aegean sea.

To scramble onto an ancient limestone ridge to see the most panoramic and photogenic view of Atsitsa Bay on Skyros Island. To experience a controlled sense of fear and challenge in the safe hands of an experienced mountaineer and the camaraderie of a shared group experience in which you know your fully alive as the adrenalin and the adventurous spirit courses through your veins?


This is the pleasure and gratitude I hold every year I am invited to attend the Skyros holiday experience as a part of a facilitator team of experienced teachers, offering a variety of holistic and life enhancing activities that vary from sailing and windsurfing, to T'ai Chi, Yoga, Drama, Life Coaching and creative expressions of song, music, art, mosaics, creative writing and many other soul nourishing feasts. 

To see people facing their innate fears and become overcomers, is a great privilege I'll never tire of. To see them grow incrementally in their confidence and seeing that adventurous spirit then spill over into the community experience that is Atsitsa, is a transformative phenomena that inspires me every year, that the human spirit needs new challenges in life.

Whilst a simple activity that requires limited skills and is backed up by the safety rope I provide in addition to the abseil rope, it does also require an accelerated and apparently irrational form of trust to commit oneself to leaning back over a spectacular drop into space. 

Standing on the edge at the start of an abseil is for most people, a very scary moment and it is in this moment I see the start of a transformation that is personal to each and every participant, leaving them a reference point that translates to the analogy of the obstacles life throws at us.....often I will hear thereafter, "If I can abseil down a scary 70ft cliff, I can do anything!" . 

This is the satisfaction I get out of enabling someone to overcome their fear whilst introducing them to a new activity in a stunning paradise setting that is the wonderful Greek experience of Atsitsa Bay... long may my association continue with this very special and life enhancing experience.  

Holidays in Atsitsa on Skyros island, Greece, run up until the 21st September this season. Grab one quick!

See www.skyros.com. Call Gemma, Michelle or Laura on +44 (0)1983 86 55 66 or email office@skyros.com for your free brochure.