Visitors to the Eden Project will have a chance to trek across an aerial rope bridge, shelter from tropical rain and travel through clouds when a thrilling new rainforest walkway opens this weekend.

The Weather Maker is the latest phase of the Rainforest Canopy Walkway and will enable everyone to explore the world’s largest indoor rainforest from the treetops. It will be officially opened on Saturday, March 18, with a weekend of exciting activities including aerial acrobatics.

The Weather Maker will enable visitors to explore the canopy’s hidden secrets, experience how rainforests affect weather and regulate the climate and see why the conservation of the world’s rainforests is vital for all of our futures.

It has been developed with academic support from the Met Office and University of Exeter and includes a wobbly canopy rope bridge stretching 23 metres across the canopy, a fully-accessible cloud bridge where visitors can travel through swirling rainforest clouds and get a sense of how they reflect sunlight and help cool the planet, and a rain shack where visitors can shelter from a tropical rain storm and discover how rainforests make rain.

There is also a rainforest research camp displaying the latest research from scientists at the University of Exeter who are working in the tropics exploring links between climate change and rainforests, the climate platform featuring an installation that explores the relationships between the atmosphere and the climate and interactive exhibits including the transpiration tree where visitors can pump water upwards to see how it travels through the tree and into the sky to form clouds.

Dr Jo Elworthy, Eden’s director of interpretation, said: “Fifteen years after opening, our forest has grown sufficiently to take our visitors into the treetops. From on high, visitors will be able to explore the forest’s hidden secrets and discover how the world’s hot, steamy rainforests help to regulate the climate."