One ... Two ... Three JUMP!

Day 249 (1.12.07)

We caught a plane firstly from Darwin to Brisbane and then onward to Cairns (for some reason this was cheaper) and managed to snatch a few winks of sleep.

Arriving at the airport we called the hostel who promptly came over in a minivan to pick us up. Wearily we arrived and checked in but as our room was not available until 2.00pm we had to store our bags and entertain ourselves for the day. The Bohemia resort was really nice and albeit a little more pricey than others we have stayed in had a great pool and spa bath, this was to be our first port of call for the day and donning our swimmies we spent a couple of hours relaxing.

A little more refreshed we got ourselves ready and caught the free hourly shuttle bus into town to go food shopping, book some of our activities and start our hunt for a car to drive down the east coast.

Getting back to our hostel we called about a couple of the vans we had seen advertised and arranged for one to be brought over for our perusal. It was pretty good but more than we wanted to spend so we decided to wait until we'd seen some more. Drawing a blank with the others we had dinner and watched a couple of Christmas films to get us in the Christmas mood just remembering to open the first door of our advent calendar.

Day 250 (2.12.07)

For today we'd like to give some massive thanks to the House 12/Pentillie Crescent girls and Chrissie's workmates as this was their wedding present to us.

We were up pretty early where we were being picked up for our first of many action-packed days in Cairns. Today we were going SKYDIVING! As we had booked at late notice we were able to get a good deal on a jump from 14,000 feet which giving us over 60 seconds of freefall. Neither of us felt really nervous yet which was a good sign - this would be Chrissie's first effort at jumping out of a plane with Mark a 'veteran' having jumped once before in South Africa a few years ago.

After picking up our 3 fellow skydivers we were dropped off at the office where we had to once again sign our lives away with the obligatory insurance waiver which stated 'accidents can and often do happen..." We are pretty used to this now having signed a fair few similar forms over the last few months. Next we were given our jump suits, met our tandem instructors and were given the basic instructions required for the dive - something along the lines of "make a banana shape when you jump out and put your feet up just before we land" - sounded pretty simple, and we decided we could both cope with that! Before we knew it were were once again off in the bus this time with our tandem instructors and destined for the airport.

It was exctiting stuff as we all crammed into the small aircraft. Chrissie found herself right next to the door - well the door frame as there was no door!

Before we knew it we were off, speeding along the runway and then rising into the air over Cairns airport. It was a stunning flight and from Chrissie's excellent vantage point she got some great views of the surrounding hills and coast and was even able to spot a croc in the meandering river as we climbed over the outskirts of the city. Despite a bit of turbulence (making Mark a little nervous that he was going to lose his wife out of the plane door) it was a beautiful climb to 14,000ft which gave us an amazing 40 min aerial sightsee of the city and its surrounds. We were still surprisingly calm considering what we were about to do. It felt a little unreal but pretty exciting at the same time.

We hit 14,00ft and it was time for the off. A quick recall of the main points with our instructors, a tightening of the harness straps and we were kneeling and making our way towards the door. One of our fellow passengers was first and seeing her go out really brought home the reality that we were just about to willingly leap from this perfectly good plane! Chrissie was second, edging toward the doorway and waiting for a second, hardly long enough for any nervous thoughts to form, before somersaulting out the door. Shortly after Mark followed in a similar fashion.

IT WAS AMAZING! Almost indescribable but we'll have a go. You get a very short feeling of falling (like jumping into a pool from a diving board) and disorientation as you topple out of the plane and then it feels like a strong wind over your face and body as you settle into the free fall position and begin to take in the views. However no matter how loud you scream and laugh (from the thrill rather than fear you'll be pleased to know) you cant hear yourself because of the wind in your ears and the speed at which you fall (over 200km/h)

Falling from 14,000ft to 5,000ft in 60 seconds was absolutely incredible and although you're plummeting towards the earth at what should be an alarming rate its doesn't really feel like you're falling. The only sign that you are is the increasing size of objects on the ground beneath. Then, without warning, the shoot opens and you quickly slow to a gentle glide under your parachute - a very relaxed feeling after the pure-adrenalin of the free fall. After getting everything sorted the instructor then gave us each control of the 'reins' allowing us to do some spirals and stalls which were also really fun.

After far too short a time it was time to come in to land. We were instructed to lift our legs whereupon both of us along with our respective instructors skidded in for a sliding landing on our butts - nice and graceful!

The whole experience only lasted around 6-7 minutes from jumping from the plane to landing on the ground, but what a feeling! Simply amazing! It really isn't as scary as you think it should be. As soon as we were on the ground we wanted to drive straight back to the airport for another go - adrenalin junkies!

Chrissie has rated it as "the best thing she has ever done" and is planning where the next possible jump could be and wondering what is involved in training to become a skydive instructor. Watch out, Chrissie could be coming to skies near you at any time!

Back at the Skydive office and still on a huge high that would last the whole day and some, we went over the road to check out another van - we were not sure whether this one would make it out of Cairns let alone down the coast - so politely declined!

After changing hostels we went in to see the guys at Raging Thunder (our now official tour booking office) used the internet before getting some free meal vouchers at Rhino Bar and cashing them in for a hearty bowl of spag bol.

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