Evening all! (Or to you morning, whateves)
So I thought I'd try doing the impossible and describe what 99% of Cairns describe as the "most indescrible experience of their lives" and thats Skydiving over the Great Barrier Reef.
Yes ladies and gentleman, the girl who you knew that left Essex, the one that wouldn't set foot into a room if a spider was there, the same girl who would also run away scared shitless from a slow moving cow in a field...jumped 14,000 feet out of an airplane.
I brought my travelling companion with me as moral support, but the bloody cow made me more nervous than i intended to be lol. She just kept looking at me like it was the last time she'd ever see me again and kept repeating "I'm so nervous for you..." great help!
The night before the inevitable dive we had a few bevvys in gilligans, which turned into 6 and staying up till silly o clock with a bunch of good natured lads. At least it helped me sleep, for all of...3 hours. I woke up dead at 5am and could not for the life of me get back to help. I kept thinking to myself "I'm not nervous though am i?" But my body was clearly telling me a different story. Mind over Matter as it goes! I got up at 7 and just sat on the balcony wishing for the time to go quicker, I just literally wanted it over and done with. Not in a negative way mind you, but not exactly in a I CANNOT WAIT way either. My whole body felt heightened, like it didnt want to keep still. I kept on jumping up and down in the kitchen to try and well...what exactly I dont know. Shakes off my nerves? As I said I was convinced I wasnt nervous. The type of nerves Im use to is the dip in the stomach, you know when you realise something and you feel like your bellys just flopped 10 feet? But I didnt have that feeling at all. I guess probably looking back on it all it was just pure adrenalin.
After waiting in the skydive office for what seems like hours (probably about an hour and a half, which didnt help either) some stocky dude with stubble and an army fishermans hat comes bowling up to me and announces I'll be taking the plunge with him today. My first initial thought is "Do i trust a man who wears a ridiculous hat to save me from falling to my plunging death?" But then he introduces me to Jeremy, our cameraman and I am instantly at ease. The guy has the most ridiculously good looking pair of eyes that I thought "Well least I can smile at him whilst I'm plunging to my death..."
So they seperate my travelling buddy and I and i bid her farewell, trying not to look at the state of panic on her face as i leave in the mini bus. When we get there and the guys harnassing me what I can only describe as the most unflattering nappy of all time they ask where I'm from. "Near london"..."Oh yeah where about's?"..."Essex?" ...."Ohhhhhh an ESSEX girl...." I sigh. This happens a lot on my travels, not so much in Asia but now were in western civilisation people tend to here the reputation. "Dont Essex girls have an attitude problem?" He asks. "Depends if you drop me from the plane without a parachute I might!"
The jokes contuinue on as we board the plane., I snuggle up into my parachute man, as he straps me in tighter and tighter as we go up into the sky. He makes me check his watch to see 10 minutes into the journey were only up 5000, I look down. 5000 feet my arse it is A LONG WAY DOWN. Surely by now the nerves should start kicking in, but then I catch a glimpse of the Great Barrier Reef and I am stunned. I literally cannot speak. Everything before my eyes was pure natural beauty. "Isnt she a beauty?" the typical aussie question pops out and I could not nothing but literally nod my head. Then it suddenly hits me. Not nerves, but a massive smile creeps upon my face as a realise the firm belief in my mind: I cannot wait to do this! Who'd of thought it aye? He informs me were 2nd to go. I'm pretty grateful for this, I dreaded going last in fear that I'd see people go off once by one and think "I CAN NOT DO THIS" but luckily enough I'm not even given enough time to think.
Red lights flash infront of me to inform me to pop on my safety goggles (another very attractive apparatus to wear and no doubt severely dampened my chances of ever getting the cameramans phone number) yellow lights indicate for me to cross my arms infront of my body and he wiggles me down to the edge of the plane. I literally don't even have time to look down as you have to put your head so far back all i can see above me is clouds and one two three GO.
There was literally no time to scream.
The g force is so strong I open my mouth to let out noise and realise there is no point. I can only simply mouth curses because I have literally lost my voice, or maybe I was screaming but I couldnt hear it myself cause the blistering wind just shrills through my ears. He taps my arms to remind me to get into freefall position and I uncross my arms and open them up wide. I think looking back the only thoughts going through my mind were "Oh cool, were about to go through a cloud.." and remembering the cool wet wisps of white against my cheeks as we dropped through it.
Once we were through the cloud the parachute was up and the deafening winds came to a complete stop. I suddenly remembering to breath but before I did all I could do was laugh. I was literally laughing with insane happiness. "Y'alright jennnneeyyy?" he asks, and I still keep laughing. All I could think was "fuck me, I DID IT!" I'm in the air, watching my legs dangle from a harness, seeing nothing but pure greenery rainforest and hills with the deepest blue sea beneath me. I am literally overcome with pure giddyness and all I can manage to keep repeating is..."WOW."
The next thing hes asking me is if I like rollercoasters and then decisevly grabs my hand to take hold of the parachute reigns and gives the right hand side a good hard tug, were spinning so fast Im instantly regretting I said yes lol.
As the ground gets clearer and clearer to me I spot my travelling buddy in the distance and give her a good hard wave like a proper Japs tourist. She later describe to me how she couldnt make out it was me until she noticed me waving like a bloody moron. I look back on her iphone as she filmed us all coming down, like tiny dots from the cloud we appear to take our time coming down when in reality we were only in the sky for a matter of minutes. I land onto the grass with a good hard thump, with grass ending up in my underwear my cameraman comes runnings up to me and asks "How do you feel?"
Again. All I could do was laugh and manage a thumbs up. My legs literally are like jelly as my body fights to gain normality again, and I'm left feeling like I've just dreamt the whole experience. Even whenI returned back to the hostel and took a well deserved shock induced nap I woke up and asked Sian..."Did I really just do that?"
So my pals that was my mini Cairns thrill induced adventure. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed doing it. I'm yet to see the dvd and pictures I got out of it so it still hasnt quite sunk in what I've actually just dont. But rest assured you'll be the first cretins to see it.
Now were have a chilled evening before we meet out Topdeck tourgroup bright and breezy tomorrow! xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment