Floating serenely down the kilometre long lazy river, with my bum wedged in an inflatable yellow doughnut and my toes wiggling in the cool water, what a way to spend a Saturday afternoon in the Tenerife sunshine. Today I had my first hands on experience of Siam Park, the new Water Kingdom in Costa Adeje.

My last trip was covering the official opening evening on September 15, a much more formal affair but this time I gratefully acepted a media day invite, and brought along friends Vicki and Martin, over from the UK, to enjoy the rides. Although a keen swimmer, i’m not a huge fan of thrill rides and Vicki describes herself as a wimp, but we all took the plunge on The Giant, as the colourful Thai faced God head seemed to promise a gentle first ride. Armed with an inflatable ring each we climbed the stone steps bare foot, ridges and pock marks ensure a good grip for even wet feet, to the launch area. A lifeguard referred to a video screen of the splash pool at the bottom of the ride to ensure the tubes were clear and then beckoned us to plop ourselves on our rings, grip the handles and launch onto the slide and through the tube opening. The water wasn’t cold but as we slopped from side to side, rushing down the chute, the twists and turns definately got the adrenaline pumping. Halfway down a bigger chamber redirected us onto the final descent and plopped us out to be greeted by a burst of sunlight and a shower of spray – exhilerating.

That was our fuses well and truly lit, we were back up for more and then onto the Naga Racer for a face down, head first ride on a giant flip flop down an undulating slide. A much needed food break, and we were on to the more sedate Lazy River, grabbing our doughnuts and drifting away with the meandering current. After a circuit of the park we were washed onto a moving ramp to raise us up 8 metres to a higher level and more drifting. I was just thinking how this could be adapted to challenge the Thames punts back in Oxford, when a lovely young lady lifeguard advised me to cross my legs and hold on tight (feel free to insert your own smutty thought at this point). My bright yellow support dropped into a fast and twisting series of downwards rapids, as I skidded around the upper curves, bobsleigh style, until becalmed in an underground section. Flowing slowly, I got my breath back in time to admire the fish darting back and forth in the large glass sided tanks around and above me. Looking up, I could see the sealed tube from the Tower of Power ride  passing through the fish pool, and suddenly a thrill seeker wooshed through the tube like a human missile leaving bubbles and a tail of displaced air in his wake. Blimey, that was impressive, I thought as I popped back out into the daylight and back to the landing point to disembark.

Just time for a plunge down the Mekong Rapids, all 3 of us on one raft, we assured Vicki it was quite tame, but were soon proved to be over confident and we were shocked at her screams of abuse as we hurtled down roller coaster like, into the pool below. A couple of bursts down the Snake Jungle tubes took us to closing time so we made our way back to the locker room to collect our gear, thorughly thrilled and soaked. We didn’t quite drum up courage to tackle the 28 metre drop Tower of Power, but it was fun watching others scream their way down.

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