Jumping off a bridge
In May 2008 we were busy planning a 4×4 trip to a place called Vleesbaai just outside Mosselbaai. As part of our trip there we wanted to go some Geocaching. After having a look at all the geocaches between Port Elizabeth and Vleesbaai we started determining exactly what route we would take. During this planning stage I noticed that there is a cache hidden at the Bloukrans River Bridge, which is where Face Adrenalin offers bungy jumping.
I asked Bernadette if we’re going to jump while we’re there looking for the cache, and I think she just shrugged it off thinking I was making a joke. So I’m sure she just put it out her mind.
The day to leave came and we started our journey to Vleesbaai. We found a couple of caches, and then we came to the Bloukrans bridge one. To be honest, up to that point I had sort of forgotten about my suggestion to do the jump. When we got there however, I turned to Bernadette and told her, “You have 5 minutes to make up your mind, or I will make up OUR minds”. I think she was still thinking about it when I was already dragging her to the cashiers to go and sign us up. Having paid, and thus committed ourselves, we headed to go get our harnesses and weigh ourselves.
This left us with a bit of time to kill before they would lead our group onto the bridge, so we hanged around and watched other people jump off the bridge. At this point I didn’t know how I was going to react once I was up there, would I freeze and not jump, or will I go ahead and do it. I’m not really afraid of heights, but jumping off a bridge puts a whole other aspect on the fear of heights.
Getting to the middle of the bridge where we jump of is an adventure in it’s own. They’ve built a cage-like structure all the way from where we start on the bridge, right to the middle where we jump. So it’s open all around you and you can see the actual distance to the bottom….. way down.
Once we got to the jumping point we were briefed and everyone got ready. One by one we jumped. As I stood at the edge of the bridge, they told me not to look down, so I duly look down to see what was in store for me. 3, 2, 1 and JUMP. I thought I was still going to scream, “Why am I doing this” as I go down, but nothing came out. For the first part of the jump you’re basically free-falling, which is an awesome experience. Next to where you’re jumping, they’ve got a rope running down with flags on it. I assume this measures the distance going down. I was a bit worried when I past the last flag, wondering why have I got past the last marking?!!? And then the rope started pulling on me to go back up. So for the next while I was bouncing up, and then down, and up and then down. Until I came to a point where I was just hanging, upside down. I looked down at the ground, and could hear the little stream beneath me. That was all I could hear for a couple of moments, it was absolute bliss. I was then helped back up where I saw Bernadette was ready to jump.
So we both did the world’s highest jump, 216m!
Will I do it again? Hell yes!