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Published: April 16th 2009
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Wednesday 8th April
Very early start this morning to catch our Greyhound bus to Mission Beach, it was a miserable weather and it didn't stop raining all day long. After arriving at Mission Beach we quickly realised that had this not been the place where we were to do our skydive, we wouldn't be staying. It wasn't very nice and the weather didn't do the place any favours, so Pippa and i grabbed our playing cards and headed to a cafe where we spent the afternoon tucked away inside. I was getting increasingly nervous that tomorrow i would be hurling myself out of an airplane at 14,000ft, so we went to the bottle shop and bought some beers to calm our nerves! We spent the evening in our room hiding from Mission Beach wishing we were back on the Whitsundays and hoping the rain would stop.
Thursday 9th April
We woke up this morning to find that it was still raining with no signs of the sun trying to break through the clouds. The 7am skydive had been cancelled and we just had to keep our fingers crossed that the weather would clear up in time for
our jump at 1pm. It didn't help that Mission Beach then had a power cut, lucikly we found a cafe which must have been running on it's own generator as it was still serving coffee and breakfast. We didn't manage to eat much and killed time by playing cards. It must have been our lucky day as the weather cleared up at around 9am and looked like it would hold out until after our jump. I wasn't sure at the time whether i was happy about this or not...! Time seemed to go very quickly and it wasn't long before we were back at the hostel waiting to be picked up. The butterflies in my tummy got bigger and bigger especially when we saw the 'Jump the Beach' van pull up. We stopped off at a few hostels on the way to pick up more nervous first time jumpers and we all got chatting. When we arrived we met the guys that we would be attached too and our cameramen as Pippa and i had decided to get a DVD made of the experience! We were harnessed up and given a briefing on what would happen once we were in
the plane. I was last on the plane which i didn't mind at all until someone pointed out that it meant that i would be the first out of the plane...! I can't even describe to you how nervous and excited i was. Skydiving is something that i have always wanted to do, but when you're taking off in the tiny little plane with a guy you've never met before strapped to your back with another guy you've never met before pointing a camera in your face i was wondering whether it was a good idea! As we climbed higher and higher into the air i knew there was no turning back! At 14,000ft they opened the door and sure enough i was to be first out. What came next can only be described as sheer terror...my face in the photos says it all! I tried not to think about what i was actually about to do, and when my cameraman climbed out of the plane i knew it it was now! It is the strangest feeling falling out of a plane, but you don't even have time to think about it before you realise that this is one of
the best feelings ever!! After 60 seconds of freefall the parachute opened and Paul (the guy i never met before who was strapped to my back...) gave me control of the parachute as we circled and gliding over the ocean to the beach where we landed safely back on terra firma! I was unstrapped and looked back up to the sky where i could see Pippa coming into land. After big big hugs neither of us could believe that we'd actually done it and there were alot of high fives all round! If they'd have asked us if we wanted to go back up and do it again, i would have said yes in a heartbeat.
Back to the hostel to get our bags and a couple of hours later glad to be on a bus out of Mission Beach and proud to be able to say we'd done a skydive.
Next stop, Cairns.
Lots of love from Mission Beach, QLD
Danielle xx
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Emma
non-member comment
Wow!
Hi Dani, another great couple of installments! I'm exhausted just keeping up with you and everything your doing. You obviously having a great time, meeting loads of people and having fun with Pippa. Keep it it all going. Think of you loads. Pop. Emma.x