BUNGEE JUMPING!

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The long awaited bungee day!

I felt sick all day, and I’m pretty sure it was just butterflies. We got to the place, A.J. Hacket, and I was to go on the minjin swing first, with Matt and Caroline. The minjin swing is where you put some harness on, and you get hooked to this wire, as well as hooked to the two other people. You put your legs out so you look like Superman, and then get hoisted up as high as the bungee tower. When the little light on the ground goes green, one of you has to pull this little cord, and awayyy you go.

I screamed the whole way forward, and then we paused for a second, and went all the way backwards. I screamed for that, too. By the second or third swing, I started screaming because it was awesome, not because I was scared of becoming detached and hitting the building below. Matt kept screaming like a girl the whole time though. When we were almost stopped, the guy who tied us up stood right where we were going to swing, and the three of us freaked out that we would three-man tackle him. He ducked at the last second.

After that, I felt ready to bungee; as ready as anybody can be for bungee jumping. I started the assent up the countless stairs. I stopped at every level just to see how much higher it got. I still can’t decide it that was a good decision or not. When I reached the top, Two girls were about ready to go tandem. I watched them go, then Lara, then Ben, then Dan. By then it was just me and Matt left. One of the guys called Matt to go, but I did not want to be the last one up there, so he let me go ahead of him.

I should mention that the view from the top of the tower was absolutely gorgeous. I couldn’t bring my camera with me, but behind us was a mountain covered in trees, and ahead of us you could see the ocean, and all of Cairns. Breathtaking! And I’m not talking about the fact that I was about to commit suicide and fail, which is what bungee jumping is.

So they had me sit on this table while one of the guys attached the harness on my legs, and the other one adjusted the ropes. I told him I didn’t want to touch the water below, because I was already freaking out enough. By this point I was definitely shaking. Every part of my brain was saying, “don’t do this!” But I told everyone that I was going to bungee jump in Australia, and since I couldn’t scuba dive, there was no turning back.

There I was. All tied up and ready to go. The guy holding onto me until I let go of the handle to my left told me to look at the cameraman and smile on the count of three. I stared at him the whole countdown, and proceeded to not smile. I had the same scared expression on my face the whole time I was on that platform. The guy told me to let go of the handle and just jump. I’ll admit it… I refused, and tried to back out. He told me I was thinking about it too much, and the more I think about it the more I won’t want to do it. That made sense, but I continued to think about it.

It was not the height that scared me at all. I knew what freefall feels like, from the minjin swing. Those few seconds of weightlessness, of a tight chest and just, falling to earth, are terrifying. The guy continued to kind of gently nudge my arm off of the handle. So I closed my eyes, took a few deep breaths, and jumped.

You’re supposed to jump out, not down, and as soon as you jump put your hands out like you’re measuring your arm span. Once gravity gets a hold of you, you’re supposed to put your hands together over your head.
I say you’re supposed to, because I don’t think I did any of this. Someone has a video that I hope to put on here sometime of my jump, and the two or three minutes before I jumped. It’s not pretty. I didn’t really jump out, and I didn’t show my arm span. Also, I chose to close my eyes for most of it, which supposedly makes it scarier . Most people go down and it’s a streamlined motion. Not for me.

After the initial down and up, it wasn’t that bad. The two or so seconds of freefall nearly stopped my heart, but the rest of it wasn’t that bad. I forgot to scream, or I couldn’t scream, for the freefall. Afterwards, I remembered. After the jump, a little boat comes out and this Mr. Tumnus lookalike detaches you. I lay on the boat while he took of the harness and just breathed out. I just bungee jumped! While getting out of the little boat, I cut my pinky on the wood, so hopefully that leaves a scar. “Oh that one? That’s from bungee jumping.”

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Photos

The Tower
That's not me up there... yet.

The girls
this is post-jump. We're all in one piece!

Comments

[Jules]

ahhhh!!!!
My heart jumped a few times reading this - there is NO WAY i would EVER go bunjee jumping!! you're so brave ;)