NOT SAFE, TOO MANY SEVERE INJURIES
My school used Calleva for team-building activities and last week we went to Calleva twice. For the first day, my grade went to a new Calleva rope course that was not on the main Calleva farm. We were generally excited since the course was new and we had never used it before. The bus showed up. The outside looked normal but the inside was covered in dirt and grime, had a horrible stench to it, and there were no seatbelts. We were given no gloves for the rope courses and had to grip metal cables and pull ropes with our bare hands. Numerous people got rope burn, including me. I also ended up with burns on the underside of my arms, one of which had a purplish bruise over it, from holding on to a metal cable while trying not to fall off the side of a rope net.
I asked a Calleva staff member for an ice pack and he gave me one. After the ice pack melted I asked him for another one, which he wouldn't give me and said the ice packs wear off fast. I went home that day with multiple burns, and many other students in my school had also been burned.
The next day there were different activities. My group went hiking and cliff jumping. The hike was difficult with many slippery spots and at one point the path was about 1 foot wide. Many people slipped. When we got to a lake with a cliff on one side, we ate lunch. Then we swam across the lake to the side of the cliff. The cliff went straight up and had many jagged edges and sharp points. One of my friends got cut climbing up the cliff and ended up with a bad cut on her leg that bled a lot.
After cliff jumping, my ears got severely injured, and I was experiencing level 10 pain. I starting crying and freaking out and then thought there were pain meds on shore. I became full of Adrenaline and started swimming to shore. I thought I had got water shoved into my ear from the impact since that happened to me at the beach once and it felt the same at first. One of my teachers asked me if I was ok and I told him I thought water got in my ear. The pain went down to a level 8 and I thought the pain would slowly fade as the water drained out of my ear. It got worse and I asked two different Calleva staff members for ice as we hiked back to camp. They said there would be ice back at camp. Another one of my teachers stayed with me since I was in obvious pain and crying.
At camp, there was no ice, first-aid-kit, or pain meds. One woman who worked there said, "There's a first aid kit in my car, but it should really be in my backpack." Of course it should be in her backpack! She gave me a lost and found waterbottle to fill with cold water and use as an ice pack. On the bus ride, the same teacher who asked if I was ok after cliff jumping asked me if I was ok again. I told him the pain was really bad and he said I could get ice from the nurse when we got back to school. On the bus ride, the pain climbed from an 8 to a 9 as I cried and tried to bear it. By the time I got off the bus, the pain was a 10 and I was crying and yelling in pain. The nurse wasn't in her office and my teacher told me to tell my mom to come get me.
My mom came and we found the nurse on another part of the campus. The nurse thought I ruptured my eardrums and we drove quickly to urgent care. Now the pain was a level 15, I was screaming and crying, and I thought I was going to die. It felt 10 times worse than a broken bone. (I would know, I broke my arm twice).
I got eardrops from a doctor and now have to take pain meds every 2 hours so I'm not screaming in pain. I understand that my ear injuries aren't Calleva's fault, as they did nothing to cause them. However, having us do the rope courses with no gloves, which caused us to get rope burns, is definitely their fault as they could have simply given us gloves and the rope burn would have been completely avoided. There should also have been ice packs, a first aid kit, and pain meds nearby. The activities we did were dangerous, and if there is any chance of something going wrong and someone getting injured, Calleva needs to be equipped and ready to deal with injuries or people will continue to get hurt and suffer! There is no reason for anyone to suffer as I did! The first time I went to Calleva a few years ago, I really enjoyed it. It was fun and I liked being up in the trees. It is a sad situation that Calleva has such good potential but as of fall 2018, cannot deal with injuries properly. Until Calleva changes for the better and is able to handle injuries and not give people rope burn, go somewhere else to do a zip line​ course. read more