Bungee Jumping, or how to jump into nothing and survive!

From the ground the platform doesn’t look that high. But that’s because walking from the bus to the base of the platform you might not realize that the Nile High Club is on the edge of a cliff looking over the White Nile.

At the base I am met by two Kiwi guys who weigh me and write my weight on my hand. Way humiliating, I could really stand to loose a little.

The climbing up they assure me that their safety record is “110%”. But wait, no, tell me the truth! They are joking around, not reassuring at all!

Then I am sitting at the top and Shane is wrapping my ankles up with a large towel and what looks like the same type of strap from my backpack. He assures me that it is a climbing strap, rated for two tons. And I don’t weigh quite that much, so no worries.

Then they connect the bungee and I shuffle out to the edge, my ankles tied together. I’m not feeling very secure just standing there, what with the lack of movement and balance.

And I’m looking over the edge, and its really, really far down, and the cliffs look way to close (although they aren’t) and every atom in my body is screaming that this is a really bad idea, that stepping out into nothing is sure death, cause as far below as the water is, if I step into nothing it will come to me quickly, and hard. My primal self knows that to step of the platform is certain death, even if my intellect knows that I am totally secure. And intellect is a small breathless voice to the roaring “NO!” of my body.

Everyone in the bar is lined up by the railing watching me. The two guys on the platform are counting down. I can’t back out, I’ll be humiliated. So I jump out, arms spread.

Then I am falling, I must be dying, I never really commit to the dive and manage to end up going feet first. The ground is coming up really, really fast!

But then I slow and then I’m flying back up into the air, and down again. By the third or fourth bounce I know I’m ok and its quite fun flying through the air.

Then they lower me onto the waiting raft, paddle me to the landing and I scramble barefoot up the rocky path, my heart pounding. It already seems like it happened to someone else.

The next day I watched a couple of people jump and it occurred to me, I wonder what I screamed as I fell? So I asked one of the girls who’d been watching, and she told me I didn’t scream at all. I guess the screams were just in my head. Because when I looked at the pictures, I appear to be holding my breath. Weird.