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Published: April 10th 2008
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Bungee! 116 secs
This weekend, I went to Storms River with Tracie, Jess, Caitlin, Emily, and Wayne - the driver from the Gaol. The village is located just outside Tsitsikamma National Park, and there are a ton of cool hiking trails through the forest. But the major reason for our trip was to jump off of the Bloukrans Bridge. The third highest bridge in the world, it crosses over the Bloukrans River and is also the site of the world’s highest bungee jump. At 216m tall (around 710 feet), there’s about 7 seconds of free fall, and apparently the drop after the first rebound is even bigger than the second highest jump in the world.
We arrived at the site pretty early in the morning; didn’t want to sit around all day being nervous about it haha. I really wanted to watch other people do it before we went, but we were the first group of the morning. They weighed us, and wrote our weight and jumper number on our hands with black marker. Then we went over to the harness station, where we got our harnesses and were told we couldn’t bring cameras out onto the bridge. I’ve heard this is because
they don’t want terrorists getting pictures of the underside of the bridge, but more likely it is because they wanted us to buy the pictures they took of us haha.
Wayne came as a “bungee buddy,” meaning he was just walking out onto the bridge to watch, while the rest of us were jumping. There were probably seven other people in our group, and once everyone had their harnesses our guide started to walk us down to the bridge. We stopped at a spot on the trail with a good view of the bridge, and Robin explained the basics to us. Our main connection to the bridge would be around our ankles, and Velcro. Not too comforting. The harness around the rest of our body would be a backup though. Also the bungee cord itself is a bunch of thin elastic strings, and is frayed in a ton of places. Again, not the most comforting. He asked if anyone had any questions, and I shot my hand up: “How do people with motion sickness usually handle this?” I was reassured that the feeling of the bungee would not make sick. Phew.
Cars driving the N2 highway drive across
the top of the bridge, and the jump site is just underneath. To get there, we had to walk across a loooong catwalk. The floor was a steel grid, so we could see straight down to the ground below us, and it bent slightly underneath our weight with each step we took. This was probably more terrifying than the jump itself haha.
Once out onto the main platform, they started blasting music to pump us up. As I watched the first couple people jump, I started to get really antsy. I felt like I was back at one of my track meets in high school - I couldn’t keep still and just kept bouncing around. I also had the biggest nervous smile on my face that wouldn’t go away haha.
When they called my name to go (there was no set jumping order, they just did it randomly) I walked over near the edge to get strapped in. The guy wrapped the Velcro around my legs, and I swear that the right one was not nearly as tight as the left. I asked him about it, “its fine its fine.” I then moved over to the next seat,
where my legs got tied together. Here I asked Robin about my right leg not being Velcroed in tight enough. Again I was just told it was fine. Since my legs were tied together, I had to be picked up and carried right to the edge. I told myself it would be smarter not to look down, but of course I did. All I could think was “why am I doing this?” But once you’re up there, there’s really no turning back. They counted down from 5, I stretched out my arms, and jumped.
I really didn’t think I was going to yell; I thought I’d be too scared to make any noise. But no, I screamed - the loudest, highest pitch sound that has ever escaped my mouth. The first 2 or 3 seconds were the scariest of my entire life, but after that it was amazing. I felt like I was flying. In the video you can see me get jerked around as I bounce back up the first time, but I honestly didn’t even feel it. I noticed that I was spinning in circles, but after the first drop I couldn’t tell that I was going
up and down at all. The view was really cool, with the forest on one side and the ocean on the other. And I felt a weird, unexpected sense of calm while hanging upside down that high above the ground. And it was really cool to be in complete silence - especially since it was so loud right before I jumped. I did have a minor freakout as I felt like my right leg was slipping out of the Velcro, but more than likely it was all in my head haha.
I’m not sure how long exactly I hung there, but it didn’t feel long until my “rescuer” came down to buckle me into an upright position and bring me back up to the top. The first thing he said to me: “nice scream.” This was rather embarrassing, because with the music up top no one heard anyone else scream.
I bought the pictures, and a t-shirt, and the DVD. It was a great experience, and I’d definitely recommend that everyone try bungee jumping if you get the chance. Everyone is terrified beforehand, but I haven’t met a single person who didn’t love it afterwards.
Spent the
rest of the weekend hiking. We did a cool coastal hike that ended at a waterfall. The waves crashing on the rocks there were the biggest I’ve ever seen. Also hiked in the Plaatbos Nature Reserve, where we encountered a snake and some enormous snails.
Pictures
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Kate
non-member comment
I felt nervous just reading about this! Can't wait to see the video