BUNGEEEEE!!!!!

Saturday August 6, 2011

           

If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you? Well, we were about to find out. Breakfast was at 7:00AM, I ate although I thought I would just throw it up later. 12 of the 16 people in the group were planning on jumping off the bridge, while the other four were going on a zip line tour. As we were driving Kristin decided to write a B on the window and say “that B is for bungee” and then proceeded to write J and say that “J is for Jump.” After a quick reminder of what she just wrote on the window the whole car laughed for about 10 minutes. Our drive was about an hour and when we arrived we all went to the bathroom so we didn’t in our pants later. After we signed our life away and were weighed, we were put into a harness and reminded that we would not die. I was not nervous at this point but I would be later on.

            As the other 4 left, the bungee jumpers walked down a dirt trail that led to a narrow but long walkway scaffolding that led to our bungee jump site. As we walked across the bridge Kristin became very nervous. I did my best to walk backward on the walkway so she could look at me and not look down. She made it to the end was has a little bit in tears and still very nervous about jumping. The first step was to make sure all of our weights were correct as it mattered for our jumping order. After that he called the name of the person that would be going first, it was Kristin. With every emotion running through her, she began to cry, yell, and smile as while they got her ready to jump. The workers turned on pump you up music and really did a great job at keeping everyone’s spirit up and ready to go. Tears and all Kristin was helped to the edge, counted down and after she did not jump, she was pushed off the bridge. The correct technique is jump away from the bridge; Kristin was pushed and did a summersault as she plummeted. After she went I just sat back a waited for my turn.

               My name was called and this started my nerves. I was called around seventh or eighth and was ordered to sit on one of the benches they used to do some prep work. I was harnessed in and strapped to my chest. After Kayla went, I moved to the next bench which was to strap in my feet. I was once again reminded that this is 100% safe and that nothing would happen. After being tied into my feet, the workers carried me to the edge. For some reason I looked down and knew nothing would happen but still became nervous. They quickly count down from 5 and then yell BUNGEE! I was totally ready to jump on my own and that is exactly what I did! After 1 I jumped as far as I could off the bridge and tried to grab the mountain in the distance like they told me to do. The drop is 216m, just over 700 feet and you fall anywhere from 160m-180m (520 ft- 580 ft). The first 5 seconds of the jump is a free fall until the bungee finally grabs you and then you bounce for about 3-5 minutes before a man comes down and pull you up the other side. As I jumped off the bridge I tried my best to keep my eyes open but I was moving so fast I physically couldn’t. The free fall was extremely scary. As the bungee caught me I opened my eyes and was amazed that I just jump off a bridge. Looking at my surroundings was incredible and really breathtaking. As I bobbed up and down, I felt as if my feet were going to slip out of the harness, I knew that they wouldn’t but it was a weird feeling. The man finally came down to get me and talked to me as we were pulled back to the top of the bridge. They pulled me up, unharnessed me and they took a picture with me and that was it. I joined the group and was greeted with screams, high fives, and hugs. It was such an amazing, wonderful experience that I would absolutely do again.

            After everyone went it was time to head back across the scary bridge and head to the gift shop to buy our videos of us jumping off a bridge.  As I watched myself jump, I still could not believe that I actually did it! Standing in the restaurant after the jump you could look out and see others jumping and watching them jumping was just as scary as jumping myself. The sad part of the day was the fact that the zip liners were late to their appointment and missed out on the tour. They were pretty disappointed, especially Megan D and Abby.  I felt really bad because everyone was talking about how cool jumping was and they missed out on their tour. After eating and talking about how awesome everything we were back on the road heading to the Featherbed Nature Reserve.

            Bungee Jumping was awesome and Featherbed was a good way to wind down the day and share all the stories. Featherbed was first a boat ride followed by about a 2 mile walk around that was quite beautiful. The houses on the nearby islands were so elegant and extremely expensive. The walk was nice and pleasant, not too intense so everyone could make it. After the walk we rode the boat back to the dock and then headed back to the hostel for a braai. A braai is a South African Barbeque and it was delicious. Lots of meat, salads and vegetables followed by a little volleyball with my favorite Fox rounded of a truly incredible, break taking, fear facing and all around awesome day!