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Published: September 19th 2009
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Getting ready
It's a lot more frightening than it looks... Don't Try This At Home
First of all, apologies to the parents for not telling you beforehand - we're sure that you appreciate that we were only concerned about how much you would worry...
There comes a point in everyone's life where they find themselves in a situation and ask themselves 'At what point exactly did I convince myself that this would be a good idea?' We can now tell you that when you're crammed into a light aircraft making a steep climb to 10,000 feet in a jumpsuit clipped to someone you've never met before (who thankfully knew exactly what they were doing) and are about to open the sliding door and throw yourself out of a perfectly good airplane, that will be one of those times.
We'd discussed whether we'd give this a go here in Namibia or New Zealand. The logic went that considering we're probably not going to be doing this kind of thing too often and that when we get to NZ the weather might not be all that great (it's clear blue skies here in Swakopmund) that, although we didn't really plan this caper this early on in the trip that we
Whose good idea was this?
Yeah, this is how frightening it is. ought not pass up the chance. So that's booked then - with a good two days to think about it!
We've now passed up the opportunity to do a ballon ride and a scenic flight and have conned oursevles into thinking that we've been clever by combining those two activities - with a bit of freefalling thrown in.
The guys we're with are really good and there's lots of joking thrown in with the quite serious how-tos of what to do when you jump out of the plane. As you can imagine, we're all feeling a bit nervous, so thankfully these instructions are repeated enough times to make it through in increasing fog of trepidation as you realise what's coming...
We've the dubious honour of being the last two to jump - only room for two tandem pairs in the plane. So we've the pleasure of hearing the first guy's (there are five punters in total) plane going overhead, getting a feeling for how high up they are and seeing the tiny white dot separating out and counting before seeing the chute open. It's all so quiet. My, that was a long time.
Our time finally
****!
**** ****! comes and we put on our jumpsuits and clip into our harnesses. The guys are doing a really good job of keeping our spirits up (or trying to distract us) as we walk to the the plane with it's engine purring away.
It's a real squeeze as we all pile in, what with the cameramen and all, and we're off - it's a steady climb, all the way to 10,000 feet.
To be fair, it's an amazing view - the desert around here is really striking, the sky is blue and it's a beautiful day. If it wasn't for the slowly encroaching feeling of terror, looking at that door knowing that soon it's going to be opening and we'll be going through it!
Then it's clip in, last minute checks, Tim's first out, quickly to be followed by Sue. Got to get your feet under the plane and launch out slightly sideways, legs kicked well back.
Rock and roll.
This is the moment and when you go out there's that fairground feeling in the stomach and some part of you just wont take in that you're now falling. Amazingly - and I mean it's the
most amazing thing we've ever felt - that feeling passes pretty quickly And then...
We're flying - and it's absolutely amazing. You can see so clearly out across the desert and ocean. There's nothing below you, though it feels like there should be but somehow that doesn't matter.
Video time and we try to have the presence of mind to do some hammy gestures for the cameraman. Then - fwumph! Chute open. Wow - that's a relief. It is an amazing feeling to know that by this stage everthing is going to be all right and the feeling of exhilaration is overwhelming. Yaaaaaa hooooo!
Not finished, Tim has a go at the controls of the parachute and we're treated to a fair bit of being spun and swung around with the ground rotating below us, which feels a bit scary sometime but when you get into it feels great, especially when you're the one controlling the spinning.
Touch down. Tim gets down first, being the bloater and the feathery Sue touches down like a little fairy princess.
And hug.
And beer.
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Neil
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