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Published: February 8th 2009
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Our first stop from Cape Town was Plettenberg Bay. We hopped on the Baz Bus, which is a backpacker’s bus that you can hop-on and hop-off all the way along the coast right up through Swaziland and up to Johannesburg. Our first journey to “Plett” started at 8am and was going to take around ten hours. We were dreading it the night before but in next to no time we were over half way and having lunch in George, about three hours from Plett.
We met loads of people, one girl from Norway who could speak a multitude of languages and was going to teach surfing in Jeffery’s Bay, our next stop! We also met three guys from Brazil who were all very funny characters, they had some great games to pass away the time!
So we arrived at our backpackers in Plett, Albergo, only to find out that I’d messed up for the first time on the whole trip. Well besides the whole reversing into a BMW! I got Plettenberg Bay and Jeffery’s Bay the wrong way round! My heart dropped as I had visions of having to walk round everywhere trying to find somewhere to stay for
the next two nights. Luckily it was a quiet time for them and so they still had space.
As we drove to Plett I realised that one of my to-do-list things was very nearby, the bungy jump! So when we arrived the first thing we did was book a jump for the next morning, Wednesday.
That night we enjoyed a brai at Albergo. We had gone to the nearest Checkers and bought three massive steaks for a little over £3! We had a few beers around the brai with everyone else. There were about six local surfers there who were great fun and exactly what you would expect from Plett locals, a couple of English guys and one guy from the Netherlands who had just broken up with his girlfriend in Botswana and was having a little time to chill out after it all!
We arrive at Bloukrans very early, around about 8.30am. They had just opened and I was the first person there! We paid and filled out the indemnity form! It was R620 for the jump, which is about £45. One other guy was going to come with me. A South African, who was on his
honeymoon! He was going first as he was the heaviest. We each had our weights written on our hands so that they couldn’t get the wrong calculation etc.
After a little waiting we walked down the walkway and to the one end of the bridge. There was a flying fox that you could take to get you to the jumping area which the managed to talk us into although it wasn’t worth the extra R130!
I was second so I watched Charles being strapped up and getting ready for the jump, once his was over I was getting pretty nervous…
The strapping up of my legs/ankles only took a couple of minutes. Gary who was in charge of hooking me up kindly let me know that the straps cold hold up to 3.2 tonnes, which was reassuring to say the least!
With dance music blaring and lots of people around you shouting,”5,4,3,2,1, BUNGY” it is not too difficult taking that leap of faith. You don’t, however, realise quite what you’ve done until you get about half way down and you haven’t yet stopped falling. The total height of the jump is 216m, which is the highest bridge
jump in the world. You freefall for just over 5 seconds but it seems much longer.
It was a perfect afternoon and I though very hard about going to skydive on the same day but later decided I’d wait for another opportunity. Jeff, a guy from Brighton/London we’d met had booked to do a skydive on the Thursday as it was his last chance to do it and thought it would be a good way to end his trip. That was all I needed, I asked the girls at reception to try get me on the same plane as him and that was it!
I woke up on Thursday morning and the first thing I did was pull back the curtains and check how the weather was doing. Not a cloud in the sky!
We arrived at Plett Skydive just after 9.00am and a Jeff had to leave on the Baz Bus just before twelve we were the first two up. The plane could only take two tandems at a time and I’d agreed to be the first one to step out of that plane at 10,000 feet!
My instructor was called Trevor, he was pretty crazy and he had between five and six thousand jumps under his belt, he said he’d lost count. I’d paid to have the whole thing videoed and so the first time I met him was with a camera in his hand pointing at me. I could feel myself trying not to look nervous but looking back on the DVD it didn’t work! Trevor and the other instructor, Donavan, were both in their late thirties and had wives and kids. You wouldn’t be able to tell that for what they looked like or how they spoke and were with us.
Next thing I know we’re up in the air in this tiny little Cessna plane sitting on the floor between Trevor’s legs looking at the awesome views of the bays, I’d completely forgotten about what I was about to do.
We had a quick chat about what the procedure was once the door was open and went over the banana position; I know it sounds dodgy, that we’d practised on the ground.
The door opened, and that noise is like nothing I’ve ever heard before. I swung my legs out and rested them on the step and then he was in control. I looked down, as he was getting ready to jump, the view was incredible. I had no choice; I wasn’t getting back in that plane!
Strangely, after doing the bungy jump the day before I wasn’t very scared but my heart was pounding very, very hard!
That tiny bit of fear before we left the step disappeared the minute we were in a spin and speeding up to our terminal velocity of 210kph. It was amazing, I didn’t want it to end and 35 seconds later it was over. Once the parachute opened it fell completely silent after the very loud noise of flying through the air so quickly! Not at one moment was I worried about the parachute no opening, it was such a rush, those 35 seconds, that it didn’t cross my mind.
We cruised down over the next few minutes and I lifted my knees to my chest as we landed.
I was still full of adrenalin for the next couple of hours and watching back the DVD makes me more nervous than when I was actually in that plane. I’m ready do my next jump already, perhaps in Durban if Luc decides she wants to take the plunge!
The weather isn’t too great here in Jeffery’s bay today (Friday) so we are going to go check out the local discount surf warehouses for a new bikini for Luc. This afternoon at 3pm we’re doing a township tour, which costs R100 and we are going to go for a drink in their shabeen! As soon as the weather gets better and the surf conditions we’re going to hire out some boards and I’ll try get Luc standing up on a wave with some help for Kirsten, the girl we met on the bus.
Our next stop in 2 days is Port Elizabeth but only for one night and than we start our journey up the Wild Coast!
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anonymous
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bloody hell that photo is giving me palpitations!!! Linc is asleep on the setee full of Karvol which is eucaliptus stuff! Its absolutely sheeting withrain has been all day!!!! Rhys seems to have not been in trouble yet which im thrilled about!!! he's home on fri xxxx working tomorrow and counselling my naughty client on thurs!! not quite as exciting as your life at the mo but im working on it!!! love ya x