Sunday, February 10, 2008
5-4-3-2-1...BUNGY!!!
This weekend I drove down to Port Elizabeth to do something one can only do in South Africa. Bloukrans Bridge, about 2 hours from Port Elizabeth on the Sunshine Coast of South Africa, is the site of the highest bungy jump in the world, duly certified by the Guinness Book of World Records at 216 metres (that's about 709 feet). Click to enlarge and read the text. Just above the text, at the centre of the span below the road is the launch area.
I was going to just do the "Flying Fox" which is like a zip line glide across to the bungy launching area, then was going to go over to another bridge, Gourits, and do the smaller (65 metres) bridge swing rather than bungy as I didn't think I was up for even the regular 65metre bungy.
So I got all set up with the harness and we walked over to the zip line launch area. And off I went. I had done the zip line thing, at Magaliesburg back in May last year, so it wasn't really a huge deal. it was still really really high...216 metres since it goes to the centre of the driving bridge, but it was so fast it wasn't really that scary.
It turns out that Gourits Bridge was another 3 hours away and I had been giving it some thought and decided to just go ahead and do the big bungy. I figured there had never been an injury or death so...As the shirt says, Fear is temporary...Regret is forever. And I hate that feeling of wishing I had done something two seconds after I miss the opportunity. So, as part of my transformation to not being a passenger in my own life, I decided to go ahead. And it was absolutely AMAZING!! I would totally do it again. I had bungy'd before, in Sarnia at only 125 feet, and oddly, that caused more pressure in my eyes than this one did. It was pure adrenaline and such a rush. It seemed to go really really slow as I jumped off until reaching the lowest point and springing back up. The first scariest part of it was the ten seconds standing on the edge looking down. It's seriously far down, man.
I felt a little sick at that point but then they tell you to look at the camera which is above the jumper which sort of distracts you, then they yell 5-4-3-2-1 Bungy! and sort of "help" you off.
The spring back up and down is absolutely unreal. I LOVED it and it wasn't scary at all. You can see the ground below me there. It's a bit deceiving though...I don't think I was actually that close to the ground.
The other sort of tense moments were when I was just hanging there upside down waiting for the crew guy to come down and ferry me back up to the bridge span. It's probably less than 5 minutes but it's long enough that I started thinking about the rope shredding or my leg slipping or a caribeaner slipping and me falling the rest of the way down and smashing into the rocks and water below. It was a pretty long 5 minutes and I'm sure I was jabbering like an idiot the entire way up.
But all was fine, as promised. Up we went and it was great to be back on the bridge safe and sound. I would totally recommend doing it do anyone who has the chance to do it. As the shirt says...fear is temporary, regret is forever.
I was going to just do the "Flying Fox" which is like a zip line glide across to the bungy launching area, then was going to go over to another bridge, Gourits, and do the smaller (65 metres) bridge swing rather than bungy as I didn't think I was up for even the regular 65metre bungy.
So I got all set up with the harness and we walked over to the zip line launch area. And off I went. I had done the zip line thing, at Magaliesburg back in May last year, so it wasn't really a huge deal. it was still really really high...216 metres since it goes to the centre of the driving bridge, but it was so fast it wasn't really that scary.
It turns out that Gourits Bridge was another 3 hours away and I had been giving it some thought and decided to just go ahead and do the big bungy. I figured there had never been an injury or death so...As the shirt says, Fear is temporary...Regret is forever. And I hate that feeling of wishing I had done something two seconds after I miss the opportunity. So, as part of my transformation to not being a passenger in my own life, I decided to go ahead. And it was absolutely AMAZING!! I would totally do it again. I had bungy'd before, in Sarnia at only 125 feet, and oddly, that caused more pressure in my eyes than this one did. It was pure adrenaline and such a rush. It seemed to go really really slow as I jumped off until reaching the lowest point and springing back up. The first scariest part of it was the ten seconds standing on the edge looking down. It's seriously far down, man.
I felt a little sick at that point but then they tell you to look at the camera which is above the jumper which sort of distracts you, then they yell 5-4-3-2-1 Bungy! and sort of "help" you off.
The spring back up and down is absolutely unreal. I LOVED it and it wasn't scary at all. You can see the ground below me there. It's a bit deceiving though...I don't think I was actually that close to the ground.
The other sort of tense moments were when I was just hanging there upside down waiting for the crew guy to come down and ferry me back up to the bridge span. It's probably less than 5 minutes but it's long enough that I started thinking about the rope shredding or my leg slipping or a caribeaner slipping and me falling the rest of the way down and smashing into the rocks and water below. It was a pretty long 5 minutes and I'm sure I was jabbering like an idiot the entire way up.
But all was fine, as promised. Up we went and it was great to be back on the bridge safe and sound. I would totally recommend doing it do anyone who has the chance to do it. As the shirt says...fear is temporary, regret is forever.
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