Dear old Ron Fox is 96 years old and is a well known character around the Santa Bárbara de Nexe area. He and his wife, Betty, moved to the Algarve more than fourty years ago when things were very different to what they are now. They bought a small house on the outskirts of the village and did most of their shopping in Spain, because there wasn’t much available in the Algarve in those days. Sadly, Betty died some years ago and Ron’s reaction was to tell people that he wasn’t sure if he was fortunate to live longer or unfortunate to outlive his precious Betty.
However, true to his upbringing and life experiences, he “got on with things” and set about making a new life for himself. Fiercely independent, until recently he drove himself everywhere, he lived in his little cottage alone and he made new friends and a new way of life. He’s a regular at Julie’s Taverna in the village and he loves to regale the patrons with tales of his exploits during his long life. And now he has a new tale to tell and is quite rightly proud of this latest one!
During a recent jaunt to Spain with some friends, he noticed that there is now a “zip wire” from a hill behind San Lucar de Guadiana in Spain across the river border to the village of Alcoutim in Portugal. Having crossed the river so many times by ferry, from Vila Real de Santo António to Ayemonte, before the new bridge was built; he decided that this would be a great way to go!
As soon as Ken, his son, arrived with the family for one of their frequent visits, Ron collared him and told him that they must all “zip across to Portugal”. The whole family thought he was mad, but agreed to go ahead and looked into how to go about it. They discovered the zip line was built last year by an Englishman, David Jarman, who has lived in San Lucar de Guadiana for seven years. He formed a company called Limitezero and it took him four years to get all the relevant permissions and to construct this innovative way of crossing borders.
David assured them that it would all go well and refused payment for Ron (it costs €17 per person) due to his great age and the respect David had for him to even attempt it. And attempt it he did!
Having fought in World War Two, Ron had undoubtedly travelled on a zip wire during training, but that of course was 70 odd years ago and now, at the grand old age of 96, he was about to become the oldest zip wire traveller Limitezero had ever taken on (the previous record was 80 years old).
So, on the 5th July 2014 the family drove to Alcoutim, a village on the edge of the great river where they had a couple of drinks whilst waiting for the ferry to transport them across the river to Spain. On reaching dry land in Spain they met the operators in a small bar where they paid for the trip and got kitted out. As they left to be taken up the mountain to the launch site, all the customers at the bar gave Ron a resounding farewell, clapping and cheering him on his way. He smiled serenely, gave an imperious wave, and set off for his new adventure!
Showing no signs of nervousness, Ron was strapped into his harness, given his instructions and off he zipped! Now, Ron doesn’t weigh very much, in fact he’s positively skeletal; the wind buffeted him quite a lot but he ignored it and its effects and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. Once he reached the Portuguese side of the river bank he was taken out of his harness and was driven back to the first cafe with his granddaughter, Nikki, and her boyfriend Tim, where they waited patiently for Ken and Barbara, his son and daughter-in-law, to join them.
The whole family drove back to Santa Bárbara de Nexe in a state of high excitement, it had been such an exhilarating day; they were all very proud of Ron for his “derring-do”.
And Ron? He took it all in his stride stating: “We have to do it again next year you know, I want to keep the record of being the eldest Zipper”!
Ron still takes his photographs of that very special day to the bar and willingly shows them to all and sundry, telling of his adventure in his usual self depreciating way. So if you are ever in Santa Bárbara de Nexe around 5pm, look Ron up at Julie’s Taverna and ask him about his “Zip Trip”, he’ll be thrilled.
For more information on zip line trips go the Limitezero website
Zip along Ron
by Sun’s Dragon
Dear old Ron Fox is 96 years old and is a well known character around the Santa Bárbara de Nexe area. He and his wife, Betty, moved to the Algarve more than fourty years ago when things were very different to what they are now. They bought a small house on the outskirts of the village and did most of their shopping in Spain, because there wasn’t much available in the Algarve in those days. Sadly, Betty died some years ago and Ron’s reaction was to tell people that he wasn’t sure if he was fortunate to live longer or unfortunate to outlive his precious Betty.
However, true to his upbringing and life experiences, he “got on with things” and set about making a new life for himself. Fiercely independent, until recently he drove himself everywhere, he lived in his little cottage alone and he made new friends and a new way of life. He’s a regular at Julie’s Taverna in the village and he loves to regale the patrons with tales of his exploits during his long life. And now he has a new tale to tell and is quite rightly proud of this latest one!
During a recent jaunt to Spain with some friends, he noticed that there is now a “zip wire” from a hill behind San Lucar de Guadiana in Spain across the river border to the village of Alcoutim in Portugal. Having crossed the river so many times by ferry, from Vila Real de Santo António to Ayemonte, before the new bridge was built; he decided that this would be a great way to go!
As soon as Ken, his son, arrived with the family for one of their frequent visits, Ron collared him and told him that they must all “zip across to Portugal”. The whole family thought he was mad, but agreed to go ahead and looked into how to go about it. They discovered the zip line was built last year by an Englishman, David Jarman, who has lived in San Lucar de Guadiana for seven years. He formed a company called Limitezero and it took him four years to get all the relevant permissions and to construct this innovative way of crossing borders.
David assured them that it would all go well and refused payment for Ron (it costs €17 per person) due to his great age and the respect David had for him to even attempt it. And attempt it he did!
Having fought in World War Two, Ron had undoubtedly travelled on a zip wire during training, but that of course was 70 odd years ago and now, at the grand old age of 96, he was about to become the oldest zip wire traveller Limitezero had ever taken on (the previous record was 80 years old).
So, on the 5th July 2014 the family drove to Alcoutim, a village on the edge of the great river where they had a couple of drinks whilst waiting for the ferry to transport them across the river to Spain. On reaching dry land in Spain they met the operators in a small bar where they paid for the trip and got kitted out. As they left to be taken up the mountain to the launch site, all the customers at the bar gave Ron a resounding farewell, clapping and cheering him on his way. He smiled serenely, gave an imperious wave, and set off for his new adventure!
Showing no signs of nervousness, Ron was strapped into his harness, given his instructions and off he zipped! Now, Ron doesn’t weigh very much, in fact he’s positively skeletal; the wind buffeted him quite a lot but he ignored it and its effects and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. Once he reached the Portuguese side of the river bank he was taken out of his harness and was driven back to the first cafe with his granddaughter, Nikki, and her boyfriend Tim, where they waited patiently for Ken and Barbara, his son and daughter-in-law, to join them.
The whole family drove back to Santa Bárbara de Nexe in a state of high excitement, it had been such an exhilarating day; they were all very proud of Ron for his “derring-do”.
And Ron? He took it all in his stride stating: “We have to do it again next year you know, I want to keep the record of being the eldest Zipper”!
Ron still takes his photographs of that very special day to the bar and willingly shows them to all and sundry, telling of his adventure in his usual self depreciating way. So if you are ever in Santa Bárbara de Nexe around 5pm, look Ron up at Julie’s Taverna and ask him about his “Zip Trip”, he’ll be thrilled.
For more information on zip line trips go the Limitezero website
or email them at [email protected]
Tel: 670 31 39 33
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