Bungee Jumping and Hiking on Garden Route (part III)

February 3, 2010

I woke up this morning with butterflies in my stomach. Today we were planned to go bungee jump off the largest bungee jump bridge in the whole entire world.

Holy fuck! The sight of the jump is called FACE ADRENALIN….that is an understatement. It’s more like FACE YOUR DEATH and TRY NOT TO SOIL YOUR PANTS! On the side of the bridge, there was an area where you could watch other people jump off the bridge and a bar with a TV in it so you could have drinks and watch other people’s live emotions and fears before they jump, and then you can watch the jump as well.

It’s such a trip watching people in the most vulnerable state…jumping off a large bridge and free falling for 216 meters is NOT NORMAL. People are not supposed to jump off bridges that high and live to talk about it.

After we registered and put on our safety harnesses, we walked down a path to one base of the bridge. Along side the bridge, there was a metal grate rickety bridge that you have to walk on in order to get to the center of the bridge, which is the jumping spot. The thing about a grate bridge is that the floor of the bridge has holes in it, so you are able to look through the ground and see how far below the earth is from your feet.

And every time you stepped on the grate, it would give in to the weight of your body and the floor would sink a bit. Damn it damn it damn it. As I walked about a good 130 yards across the bridge, I didn’t look down once….not never…no way no how. I literally kept my head up and my eyes focused on the nets to the side of me. I knew that if I looked down, I would flip a shit and run away. The walk across felt like an eternity. It was very hard for me to control the volume of my voice too because my heart was racing so fast and adrenaline was already pumping.

When we got to the middle of the bridge, there was a whole team of workers hanging out, laughing, and welcoming us. I bet the workers have the most tiring job because they have to make sure that the energy level is high all the time. So in order to do this, they bump the loudest techno music that I have heard, which not only took my mind of what I was about to do, but it also allowed me to have a dance party on top of a bridge…word, because I love dance parties. I think it is also important to make the music as loud as possible because it prevents people from hearing the deathly screams coming from bungee jumpers. It would be a miserable experience if the environment was quiet, which would freak the shit out of everyone.

I had to watch about 8 people go before me, and every single time I saw a person jump my heart stopped,

and it made me think how stupid I was to do what I was about to do. Anyway, when they called my name to go I was in the middle of a practicing some dance moves because I decided that I would dance all the way to the bottom of the jump. They strapped my ankle together, told me how SAFE it was, and then slowly but surely made me hop to edge of the plank. Before I jumped I did a little bit of a thizz face dance move just to prepare myself for the worst. As I got to the edge I looked down…my smile immediately turned into a blank stare of death.

One of the scariest moments apart from the jump was when the workers through the bungee cord off the side of the bridge and the weight of the cord tightened against my ankles. Before I knew it, I heard the workers, who were holding my back, say “5-4-3-2-1- BUNGEE!!!!!” I think just for a little help they push you off the edge, but I took a leap of faith and did a nice swan dive down towards the earth.

The feeling is nothing like I’ve ever felt before. For a long 5 seconds, I thought I was going to die. I screamed so much that I was physically unable to scream anymore….my body rushed to the ground cruising through the wind at 150 km/hr. NOT NORMAL.

Right as I thought my life was done, the bungee cord caught, and it was literally the best feeling of my life. But then I bounced half way to the top of the bridge again, and went for another free fall of about 2.5 seconds. As the bouncing stopped I just hung there spinning around and yelling “YAHHHHH BUDDDDDY!!!!!”….nobody could here me except for me.

It was so peaceful to be hanging up side down, and looking at an amazing view of the valley and the ocean. Since I was spinning, the all of these images were mixed together, and the earth turned into an EPOCH surrealist painting. When I got back up to the top, I gave all of my buddies a big HUG, and jumped up and down for a while. I walked back across the rickety bridge with no fear of looking down anymore, got back to land, went to the company bar, and drank the tastiest, most satisfying beer of my life. YAH BUDDY!

The rest of the day can’t really compare to the emotions of the morning,

but we went on a really beautiful hike along the sea coast in Tsitsikama National Park to a natural waterfall and a fresh water swimming hole. We had a picnic consisting of cheese and crackers, nuts, and ostrich jerky.

What a day, South Africa is amazing. Should I come back to the States? By the way, Rodrigo bought a safari hat, and he has been wearing it everywhere....he's the first mexican crocodile dundee.