Bungy Jumping

[Adrian Schneider]

As I probably told a few of you, I went bungy jumping in South Africa. To our suprise, we fluked out and went to the highest one in the world (216m). I guess I'm stupid or something, but I didn't think it would be scary. I mean, all you have to do is get tied up and jump.

Haha, yeah I was wrong.

Driving up there (about 1hr from Knysna), we went over several bridges as we drove higher and higher, and each one my stomache churned a little more. Finally when we reached the bridge I was nearly terrified.

We first went to the shops and stuff where you sign up (across from the bridge), and my uncle stationed there with the video camera. We walked down to the catwalk, and eventually the jumping zone.

Of course you are thinking "don't look down", then naturally you do. Wow. It is high. Out of me and my friend Justin, I was the first, so I had no idea if we would live or not lol.

As they are tieing me up, my (newly aquired) fear of heights is falling into place. Finally, they hop with me to the edge, with my toes dangling over. With all the energy they have, they count down from 5.

That was the longest 5 seconds of my life.

During those 5 seconds, your fear heightens to an unbeleivable amount, then finally adrenalin takes over and you just jump without even thinking.

The next 5 seconds of my life were longer than the previous 5.

Freefalling is an amazing feeling. Basically it feels like you aren't moving, but the wind and the view rules that idea out. When the rope finally stretches too far, you are shot back upwards and you feel (maybe just relative to freefalling) 1000x heavier than usual, and there is an enormous amount of pressure on your feet.

When you are falling, it feels like the rope is loosening (slip-knot or something), then when you go up it tightens. So every time you go down it feels like the rope is coming off, and then the fear comes back.

Finally, the energy in the elastic-rope dies out, and they come down and fetch me back up (still hanging by my feet).



That was probably the highlight of my trip... a few minutes. It is definitely an amazing experience and I recommend it to anyone who wants to have some fun. I have video from the jumping zone (from them), and my uncle's perspective. It is very hard to imagine what it is like without some visual aid.

Here are my favorite two shots of it: