Jumping off a bridge

I wasn't sure about bungy jumping at first. I was nervous about the usual. Broken ankles. Detached retinas. Dying.

But then, we stopped to watch people jumping at the original bungy site - Kawarau Bridge - the other week and it didn't seem as bad as I had expected. So I kinda thought - why not? Do at least one thing every day that scares you, right?

I would like to mention, at this point, that although the bungy jump was a birthday present from Alec, it isn't the only present he gave me. I have to mention this as one of my friends texted asking 'is that really his idea of a birthday present?' (He also gave me other lovely stuff including a pretty heart shaped keyring, the most beautiful flowers I have ever been given, a turtle (hard to explain), chocolate, a bubble blower, etc, as well as bucks fizz breakfast, dinner and movies.)

So, I found out at breakfast that my 30th birthday was also 'bungy jump day'. Which probably helped my decision to opt for not much food and quite a lot of Bucks Fizz for breakfast.

So, the jump was at Kawarau Bridge, which I was quite relieved about. After all, when you jump off a bridge at least there is water below. Okay - maybe you die of drowning instead of a broken neck, but at least you have options... Plus, this one is only a 43m drop rather than the 134m (8.4 seconds freefall) Nevis bungy which goes from a kind of cable car strung between 2 mountains.

It was also good to know that it was a tandem jump - in other words Alec had to do it too. And since he's a good bit taller than me I thought he might cushion any blow...

So, after we had been weighed in and signed the disclaimer (basically - no one will sue if we die) we headed up to the bridge. It was pretty chilly out there, which took my mind off the jump a little, so that was good, although I really wasn't that nervous at that point. I hadn't had time to worry, whereas Alec had, bless his cotton socks.

Bizarrely, a guy from Stirling was in the crew who geared us up and did the safety checks. It's a small world.

It's a pretty small space to get sorted in, but you don't see the 'view' til right at the last minute. It wasn't bothering me though as we'd seen the drop from the bridge and the viewing station. But then, we'd had barriers between us and the drop then. Plus our feet weren't tied together...

After everything was attached we stood up and wiggled our way to the edge. I can honestly say that this was the first time I had any real nerves about doing the jump. I'd been fine up until that point but I went from pretty calm to major panic mode within the space of about half a second. In fact, you can quite clearly hear me saying 'Oh f*ck, I really don't want to do this' on the video.

It seemed like we were standing there for ages, with our toes over the edge, while they did the final safety checks. During this time Alec asked, 'Can we just go whenever?', and I had visions of him leaping and me being pulled along behind.

And then it all happened rather quickly. Too quickly in fact. The woman behind us said something quickly and counted down '5', 4, 3, 2, 1, jump' ... and neither of us moved a muscle. It's not a thing to be rushed into.

But the second attempt was a now or never moment and, after the count down, we kind of fell rather than leapt off the little platform and plummeted towards the icy blue river. It is, indeed, the most stupidly scary thing I have ever done. Those split seconds of free fall are terrifying. But, as soon as you feel the bungy cord touch your ankle, way before it even tightened, it's all okay.

And, surprisingly, neither of us screamed. There was more noise from the viewing platform than from us. Maybe we were just too scared and then just too relieved.

So, throwing yourself off a bridge might sound bizarre enough in it's own right but then, as I said, it's a small world. At the end of the jump we were lowered into a safety boat where one of the guys unharnessing us had a distinctive Scottish accent. Turns out his folks live about 5 minutes from our old flat in Milngavie...

Would I do it again? Yes - I probably would. But I would choose one of the ones that uses a body harness rather than one which straps your legs together. That way you can take a run at it and you don't have to teeter on the edge whilst the final checks are done. Plus you can hold the bungee in your hands when you jump in a body harness, so it probably feels more secure. I'm thinking of doing the 47m bungee above Queenstown at night actually. Watch this space.