Extra Mile

Luxury car drives, adventurous activities and exclusive access to Old Trafford are among the perks for Marriott Bonvoy members as the global operator steps up its experiential profile

The dark blue Maserati GranCabrio Sport made surprisingly light work ascending Jebel Jais and our group has now boarded a minibus for the final ascent to the Toroverde zip line. The humour on the final ascent has been replaced by quiet anxiety as we step out into the howling wind 1,934 metres above sea level. There is no going back as I’m about to be pushed head first off the top of the UAE’s highest mountain.

“Bye bye,” I hear, as I fly over shrubland, a stretch of twisting road and out into the vast canyon, formed over 70 million years. My partner has driven the Sport faster than me but I’ve left him firmly in my wake as I hurtle along the line, cutting through strong winds at speeds of around 120-150kph. I’ve flown thousands of miles over the last 25 years, but nothing matches these two minutes. It’s the world’s longest zipline measuring 2.8kms.

When I crawl onto the elevated platform – itself a feat of engineering, suspended by wires – the tension at the top has been replaced by a zipline-like rush of elation. The brain is buzzing, the tongue incoherent. Then it’s a quick de-clip and re-clip for the short, final jump to terra firma and we return to the viewing deck, along a narrow path as scary as the line itself.

The jump was undoubtedly the adrenaline highlight of the inaugural four-day Grand Tour organised by The Ritz- Carlton and Maserati, though the four runs of drag racing along the Yas Marina Circuit ran it a close second; that day also included drift-and-sprints in a separate area, if the heart wasn’t quite pumping enough.