Richard Bannister

After my final stop yesterday evening I drove to Dusseldorf Airport, where I returned my rental car and checked into an airport hotel. This was almost double the price of the Holiday Inn Express a few kilometres away, but I decided it was worth the extra cost to be able to stay in bed for an extra hour. And yes, I am getting old.

Dusseldorf Airport has recently begun to offer fast-track security, and in a welcome change from the norm this is offered at no charge. Passengers can pre-book a fifteen minute slot by entering their flight details on the official website, and are guaranteed more or less immediate screening provided that they arrive within their chosen window plus or minus five minutes. The only bad news is that the latest permitted time is ninety minutes prior to departure, which is a little excessive when you’re travelling with hand baggage only on a Schengen-area flight. Having mulled things over however I decided I might as well use it anyway for peace of mind – and as a result I had almost an hour to enjoy a relaxed breakfast airside before boarding started.

My flight today was my first experience of Eurowings, a discount subsidiary of Lufthansa that offers a range of low-cost domestic and European flights from eight German airports. In deference to the laws of cheap airlines there are about twenty different add-ons you can buy with a base ticket, one of which is an option to request an empty seat next to you. I decided to invest the €20 on a whim, and ended up with an entire row to myself on an otherwise almost full flight. This allowed me to sleep for the hour and change that we were in the air. A member of crew woke me about five minutes before landing, and by the time I’d gotten my brain back into gear we had arrived at the gate.

The car rental facility at Lyon Saint-Exupéry Airport is located a little over a kilometre away from the terminal buildings, and there are no footpaths for much of the route, meaning that walking is frowned upon. I’d expected to have to wait for a bus, but a benevolent deity was apparently watching out for me as one was loading as I approached the stop. Better yet, there was no wait on arrival either – and as a result I was able to hit the road almost an hour ahead of my projected departure time.

I arrived at Walibi Rhône-Alpes about twenty minutes before the scheduled opening, though you'd never have guessed that I was early from the number of cars in the parking lot. A staff member directed me towards one of the last rows in the paved area, adjacent to the Timber brake run. On the plus side, this enabled some photographs I would never otherwise have taken; every dark cloud and all that.

It was scarcely a surprise to see a big purple sign warning that the park was fully sold and that there would be no tickets at the door. Fortunately I’d purchased online ahead of time; it would have been rather embarrassing if I’d forgotten to do that, even if it would have made for a truly hilarious trip report. It'd be up there (or possibly down there) with the time that a well-known enthusiast (no, not me) travelled to Rocca al Mare Tivoli in Estonia, entirely oblivious to the fact that it had gone bankrupt months before. We've never let him forget.

The park’s newest coaster is located almost directly opposite the main entrance, though access (for those unable to fly and/or unwilling to swim) requires circumnavigating a lake. I began power-walking in what seemed to be the right direction, only to find myself at a holding point with what can only be described (and with feeling) as the great unwashed. After a seeming eternity in situ (that in reality was less than five minutes) the mob began to move, albeit not in the direction I’d anticipated. It was tempting to follow, but I decided to stick with my planned route – and it paid off, as I arrived at the entrance of Mahuka (#3142) with no more than twenty people in line in front of me.

The ride is the second-generation version of the Intamin Hot Racer that premiered in 2021 at Luna Park Sydney. It is marketed as a single-rail design, though pedants might observe that the track consists of a spine with tubular rail pieces welded to each side, making it quite different to the box-like structure used by rides like Stunt Pilot and Wonder Woman. There's probably a debate to be had about whether anything with parallel wheel sets can truly be described as single-rail, but I digress.

The ride operates with two trains, each which has nine single-seat cars. Throughput is maintained using assigned seating, albeit with an unusual approach; the operators send solo riders to the front of the next train rather than to the next-available seat, presumably to keep space for groups further back. This policy worked spectacularly in my favour, as all four of my laps were in the lead car. The comfort level from that location was flawless, resulting in an absolutely exceptional ride that is well up there with the very best coasters in Europe.

The signature element of Mahuka is a pair of top hat elements mounted upon the same support structure – an inside example after the first launch, and an outside example after the second. The rest of the layout consists of a well-paced mix of airtime hills, turns, a corkscrew, and a heart line roll. The latter is installed over water, and is a joy to experience. The scenery doesn't quite have the visual impact of the Sydney Harbour and the Milsons Point apartments, but the park has nevertheless put together a pleasing mixture of wooden fencing, hedges, and custom rock work for guests to enjoy.

I waited ten minutes for a second lap, but decided against a third as by that stage the queue had ballooned. Instead I made my way across to Timber, the park’s wooden coaster. The wait here was posted at one hour, but there was a single rider split at the halfway point which I decided to try on a whim. Much to my astonishment I was able to walk all the way into the station and the back seat of the next train. I'm quite sure this wasn't what was supposed to happen, but I wasn't about to complain. The ride experience was a great deal better than in 2019; there were one or two rough spots, but the majority of the layout was fine. The only real negative was the harsh trim brake towards the end; it’s a shame this couldn’t have been designed out.

By this time I disembarked the crowds had grown even further; all of the interesting coasters had ninety minute waits. Rather than endure more time in the company of smokers and those with inadequate personal hygiene I elected to use two pre-purchased Mahuka fast passes (yes, I did plan ahead) before going for an early lunch. I thought I’d be able to get food efficiently at 11:50am, but I'm sorry to say that was optimism to the point of foolishness; it took thirty-five minutes to get to the front of the line. I used some of the time to try to buy additional fast passes, but to no avail; everything was sold out.

By the time I’d finished eating there was only enough time for me to do two or perhaps three rides before I'd have to leave for the airport and my onward flight. I thought that I might be able to boost that number slightly using single rider queues, but a quick look at the one for Mystic disabused me of that notion. Five minutes later I decided that the best use of the balance of my day was to invoke my backup option: a scenic drive into the mountains for an alpine coaster.

The Vercors Regional Natural Park is an expanse of forested mountains covering roughly 135,000 hectares. The area has a wide selection of tourist attractions, most of which can be found on the main plateau a kilometre above ground level. My GPS brought me to the outskirts of Grenoble by motorway before sending me up a very steep winding road that pushed my rental car to its limits. I couldn't maintain the posted 40km/h in anything other than second gear, and the noises it made while doing that were not happy ones, so rather than blow up the engine (and miss my flight) I decided to slow a little and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

On arrival at the Speed Luge the operator asked me something in high-velocity French that I didn't quite catch. An apologetic parlez-vous anglais was met with a slight frown that turned into a radiant smile when I followed it up with je ne suis pas anglais; absolutely true in my case, and probably a useful lie for anyone it doesn't apply to who might one day retrace my steps. Monsieur did not have many of the King's words, but the four he said were what every enthusiast dreams of in such situations: would you like fast? After an emphatic oui, merci beaucoup he indicated that I should wait, delaying my dispatch by almost two minutes to ensure an uninterrupted run. The world would be a better place if all alpine coasters were operated in this manner.

The ride itself has about three and a half minutes of lift hill, followed by about seventy seconds of descent assuming full speed. The layout is more or less standard Wiegand, with the only particularly memorable feature being a drop of about five metres at the midpoint. Despite the homogeneity however I enjoyed it immensely, perhaps because I’ve only ridden one other alpine coaster this year (and that one was in the desert). I’m glad I made the effort to get there.