If someone told you to jump off a bridge...

Monday morning came at a ridiculously early hour the day my friend AJ and I decided to go bungee jumping.  We got picked up by the lovely people at AJ Hackett and arrived at a rather secluded spot near the JCU Cairns campus.  After walking up a rather steep hill, we emerged into a lovely bar area open to the air and situated so spectators could gather round the small pool where we to jump against all instincts.  We paid, set our stuff on a chair and climbed the “tower of terror” to the platform where we were to jump.  AJ decided to go first, and since he has a bad knee, he was put in a body harness.  I watched him jump, very excited for my own brush with death as I watched him splash down and swing around.  My turn came around and the awesome guys at the top sat me down to tie me up to the bungee cords.  I was expecting some fancy rigged set up with lots of clips and D-rings, so I was somewhat surprised when they guy folded a towel around my ankles, secured it with a strap, and started hooking up the bungees.

“Wait, that’s it? Just a towel and a strap?”

“Oh no no sweetheart,” I was reassured, “its three towels and a strap!”

“…. Umm”

“Oh don’t worry hun! They’re the best towels 2 dollars can buy!”

This was the point where I began to have a few doubts.

They got me hooked up and I shimmed to the edge of the platform, buzzing from the adrenalin.  I still wasn’t really afraid, just a bit nervous.  The next 30 seconds however, were absolutely terrifying:

:00 sec- get to edge of platform

:01 sec- realize that the extremely high high-dive metaphor I had constructed in my head to keep from   getting nervous was completely wrong and this is actually significantly higher than I was expecting.

:05 sec- Am I really going to do this?

:10 sec- guy starts counting down from 5

:15 sec- guy hits 1

:16 sec- screw it I'm jumping

:17 sec- actually jump off the platform

:18 sec- realize I have made a terrible mistake

:19-25 sec- free fall and release blood curdling scream

:25 sec- bungee starts slowing me down and

:30 sec- start laughing like a crazy person as I continue to bounce and swing back and forth

yeah it was a pretty wild ride.

The next day AJ and I went 4 wheeling through the rainforest.  Pretty self explanatory.  It was a lot of fun and absolutely beautiful.