Jumping off bridges and other forms of madness

I was on a road trip in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, when the madness began in earnest.Now I knew from the start that they were planning on abandoning their senses and throwing themselves of Bloukraans Bridge, which with a 215m freefall, happens to be the highest commercial bungee jump in the world. Not I, I insisted, never ever.

Now it’s not that I am afraid of heights or anything like that, it’s just that I have never felt the need to test my mortality like that. "You guys are mad!" was all I had to say on the subject whenever it came up, which was often enough to make my stomach churn…

It was early, ungodly early on a Friday morning, we were preparing to leave Addo and head through to Knysna, which meant it was the day my friends had mentally been preparing themselves for, when my love turns to me and says “Baby, will you take a leap of faith and jump off a bridge with me?” NO!!!! – My insides were screaming, and yet I found myself taking his hand, looking him in the eye and saying YES.

To say that the last hour of that leg of the road trip before we got to Bloukraans was quiet would be an understatement… All I could think about was if something went wrong my mother would kill me! That and that love apparently really does make people insane. It was quiet at least until we saw the sign, Bloukraans Adventure Village, 2km ahead.

That’s when things started to go a little pear-shaped in our car.
Music was pumped up, I believe it was a Jump Rope by Blue October, where the chorus sings cheerfully “Up, down. Up, down. Up, down. Life’s like a jump rope.” (Thanks for that Sam…) It was at about this point that I turned a pale shade of green and began to loudly protest that I had changed my mind; I didn’t want to do this. The only response I got from my kind and loving friends was that they turned the music louder…


Pulling into the parking lot and seeing the sign “Worlds Highest Bungee” did NOT do anything to help. Half dragged, half carried, I found myself all too quickly at the pay point. HA – SALVATION!!! I thought, perhaps there wasn’t enough money left in my account for this transaction to go through…(it was the very very end of a very very long road trip after all) I waited holding my breath, for the first time in my life praying that the transaction was declined, no such luck.

With a stomach filled with lead and dread seeping out of my pores, it seemed I watched myself from somewhere else as they harnessed me in and led the three of us who were jumping to the beginning of the catwalk which runs under the bridge to the jumping platform, which is exactly in the middle of the bridge. With only a metal grate (it's completely see-through!) protecting you from a 400m drop below you; this little walk in itself is not for the faint-hearted. I was still protesting with every step that I didn’t want to do this; I have never wanted to do this, why the hell am I doing this! I knew though it was futile, I had already totally drained the last reserves of my bank account to do it and my friends were stoically ignoring my protests with a joviality that almost made me want to throw them over the bridge myself!

As we got near the platform, it suddenly seemed to burst into life. Loud house music began pumping; staff members who were previously just sitting around looking kind of bored were suddenly jumping around animatedly and shouting, it seemed like a scene out of some adrenaline junkies’ dream of a rave! I was the last to jump and the reality that I was really going to do this only hit me as they bound my feet together and I penguin-hopped to the first gate. At this point, two guys came up to help me safely get to the edge of the bridge, with just the tips of my toes sticking out over the edge. “Look like a professional, you are on camera” the guy to my left tells me. “Good luck” the guy to my right says. “I love you baby!!!” is screamed as Sam plummeted to earth at 120km per hour.

1...2...3...4...bungeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! And I’m gone. All thoughts ceased completely, there was just me, the wind and the ground rushing up to meet me at an alarming rate. The initial fall before the cord catches and bounces you back up is only about 4 seconds, but time seems to stretch along with the bungee cable and if felt as though I would fall forever. Relief flooded through me as I found myself suddenly flung in the other direction. "I’m not going to die, and I’m not going to die!" I thought, and then it was as if my entire body just relaxed and I yelled back up to Sam “I LOVE YOU TOOOOOOOOO…”

A few more bounces and then I was gently swaying in the breeze, suspended upside-down by my feet, and half way down a 400m drop. I must have been there for about a minute when the team who come and bring you back up reached me. I have to say, I have never in my life been so happy to see another human face! It takes them about another minute from when they reach you to get you back up to the top of the bridge where they strap you onto another kind of harness and gently lower you onto solid ground! Ok, so it was still the metal grid under the bridge, the same platform that had terrified me less than 5 minutes ago but felt amazingly safe now after having thrown myself off it!

We hugged, we bonded, we got the t-shirts (literally) we drank tequila at the bar and then we left. The entire experience took less than an hour. The effects however are still with me. Watching the DVD of the jump makes my heart start racing, hearing the music they were playing at the time of my jump makes me breathe a little harder (I got a feeling by The Black-Eyed Peas). And amazingly enough, I find myself back in the Eastern Cape as a I sit and write this, a month later, and you know what… I think we will do it again on Wednesday.

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• 1. Not I, never ever!
  Good story though, you got my heart racing just reading about it!
  

  
  emmagass

  December 21st, 2009 at 2:53pm

  

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• 2. I think I am much happier sitting here, safely in my chair and reading your blog. Don't think I have it in me to launch myself head first into a gorge....unless large sums of cash are involved! - in which case I'd have to think it over...but probably still not...
  

  
  claudiskies

  December 21st, 2009 at 3:21pm

  

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• 3. Not even for love or money hey? :)
  

  
  NicolaWade11

  December 28th, 2009 at 9:19am

  

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• 4. Indeed! :-D
  

  
  claudiskies

  December 29th, 2009 at 11:44am

  

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