Katie's Very Excellent Adventure: Africa 2013: Activity 4: HOPpy Easter

It was strange to spend Easter not doing anything remotely Easter related. This was the first year that I didn’t dye a singe easter egg. Instead, I spent the day jumping off a bridge. In fact, I jumped off a really tall bridge. Let me clarify these statements - I bungee jumped off the tallest bridge jump in the world at 216 meters off the Bloukrans Bridge.

Here’s how it worked. We were all fitted with a harness and then we walked out to the middle of the bridge on a kind of cat walk. There were platforms built under the road so jumpers didn’t have to worry about what they were about to do, while at the same time trying not to get hit by a car. Looking back, the walk out was the scariest part because you could see the bottom of the valley and see just how high you were off the ground. I waited around for a while before it was my turn. Then, these big pads are attached to your ankles and your strapped in. Everything was self tightening so when the bungee caught you the harness got tighter and kept you from falling. Then you HOP up to the edge of the bridge, someone counts to 3 and you push off from the edge and jump. Then it feels like you’re flying for a while (it was probably only a second or two, but time seemed to move much slower). It really felt like you were a bird during these brief moments before the bungee catches you. You end up bouncing upside down for a while and swinging before your momentum ends and you’re just hanging there. Then it’s just you and your thoughts, a beautiful view of the valley and the river below, a lot of blood rushing to your head and a whole lot of silence. This was the first absolute silence I had heard all semester and it was quite nice to just be there looking around and listening to nothing. Apart from all the blood pooling in your skull and a strange pressure behind your eyes it was actually kind of peaceful. Then a guys comes down, your hooked to another bungee and then hoisted up. Then, it’s over. In all, the whole process lasts maybe 5-7 minutes, but it seemed a lot longer and the adrenaline definitely lasted much longer than that.