“Oh dear,” said my husband Chris as he joined me for breakfast on the terrace one morning about two weeks ago, “I’m not sure that I’ve done the right thing by accepting our latest guest request…” 

“How so?” I asked with surprise as I looked up from my diet shake (no, I’m not slim yet!).

“Well, Igor looks normal enough on his profile photograph – even a tad nerdy – and other Airbnb hosts have recommended them as a nice couple, but, do we really want them to ‘go ape’ in our lovely suite?”

“Go ape?” I repeated, mental images of Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan racing into my mind and it didn’t seem so bad, then I thought of the other connotations – of people getting out of control or over-enthusiastic. 

“I hope they don’t swing from the chandeliers and mark their territory,” Chris said, reading my mind.

“Maybe it’s just a new term for having fun,” I suggested.

So we stopped thinking about Igor ‘going ape’ until yesterday, when he contacted us to arrange their arrival plans. I read the email first:

“We intend to go ape tree until three o’clock and then we’ll come over to you if that’s okay.”

“That’s a relief,” laughed Chris, having checked out on Google that Go Ape is a tree top adventure course with Tarzan ropes and ladders.

A short while ago Igor and his girlfriend, a very nice young couple (not at all nerdy), confirmed that they had had a great time swinging in the tree tops at Haldon Forest, perhaps half an hour from us.

“I’ve never heard of Go Ape before,” I said, “but it sounds exciting – like a jungle gym!”

They nodded enthusiastically.

Of course, they probably hadn’t even heard of Jungle Jim and wouldn’t have known that Jungle Jim (also played Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller) was one of my childhood heroes… along with Tarzan, Superman,  Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone (quote – I can’t say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days). They stopped making Jungle Jim before I was born!