The most exhilarating feeling is when you come across that one thing that makes you swoon.. makes you feel like your free and could take over the world. For me, bungee jumping make the cut. I’ve done various kinds of adventure sports but one thing that stood out for me is jumping off a box in the sky and the feeling of no strings attached, even though my legs were attached to the harness and the cage. It was bare skin and blood. The feeling of falling without fear.
Marked! Jumper 24! And weight which is obviously blurred out. I was the lightest jumper.. how comforting! :P
My friend M had flown down from Sudan after a good session of nagging and she had spotted this sport now available in our city and decided we needed to do this. Getting to the spot was the hardest though. Like I mentioned in my previous post, my car’s air conditioning had giving up on me and our appointment was at 2pm that day. The Hottest time of the day. We took it up bravely but since I follow my GPS everywhere it kept taking me onto routes that had Salik toll gates and because I did not have that loaded, I kept taking detours. After a good hour of delay and already late for the appointment and on the other side of the city, lost, we gave up.
The day was turning out to be horrific. I was drenched in perspiration and I was worried, that the next day being the Sinhalese New Year and I having promised to return within an hour to take mom shopping for the requirements of the next day; wouldn’t be able to make it on time. We stopped on the other side of the city at a mall parking. Firstly, the parking was so difficult to find, the next challenge was to find coins for the parking machine. We walked the mall, checked with every store that seemed to have a cash register but no one was wiling to spare change. So we went in and eventually bought water to which we were given coins in return.
Going up!
We then hopped on a long and cramped metro ride to the station closest to our destination. The lady on the phone told us that it was walking distance from the station but because of the heat, it was advisable to take a cab there. Because the day was so wrong, we got into a cab from the other side which means it took us 15 mins and 30AED which was 5 mins distance and should have costed nothing. Finally we got to the jump site around 3.45pm which was one hour and forty five minutes later than our scheduled appointment but the people at Gravity Zone were extremely friendly and very flexible. They allowed us to do the jump at that time.
Going up!
Gravity Zone is a UK based adventure sport company and they’ve introduced it here in the UAE now. They are bringing more attractions such as zip line, abseiling and other jumps. Currently they are conducting single bungee jumps and tandem jumps. Its quite challenging if you want to overcome fear of heights or just want to let go. Perhaps jumping from Burj Khalifa would feel this way? Our jump was from a 170 feet high crane.
*heart skips a beat*
When signing our lives away, our weight and physical abilities were checked. M was wearing a scarf and they paid particular attention to the little details like pins or any jewelry we were wearing. They took our forms and then marked the outer side of our palms with a marker. One hand showed which number jumper of the day we were. I was the 24th of the day and the other marked our weight and weight group as all the harnesses and ropes were categorized based on weight. I thought the team did an excellent job, they took a lot of care, very motivating and encouraging and they repeated instructions so many times that if there was a mistake, you know it had to be you.. not them!
Leap of faith.. * I believe I can fly! *
On the jump site, M went first and she seemed fine. She wanted to jump backward to cushion the fear but it looked like they din’t let first timers jump any other way than a front dive so I watched with my camera help up above my head trying to tape the jump on my phone. M did jump but she panicked and did not let go of one of her hands which resulted in hitting her pinky finger on the cage. She was quite traumatized. She was all shaky once she came down, it did not go as expected for her, her hands were shaking and her experienced ended in a “scary” way for her. I had to wait my turn after four other jumpers because once harnessed they don’t let you leave jump site and that meant I couldn’t take pictures, so I let four other jumpers go before me.
Once M was out, I went in and got harnessed and watched the others do their jumps. For many it went well, all you have to do is follow instructions to the tee. They checked my weight again, asked if I was wearing any jewelry, had any pins in me, anything in the pockets and finally I was cleared to jump. When the cage came down, I was geared up and I hopped into the cage and was lifted 170 feet into the air. Once at the top, the cage swiveled a bit and the instructor got it to a standstill, explained safety instructions to me and opened the cage door. He asked me to get up and reiterated the instructions to me and kept holding me. I came to the edge of the cage where my toe tips had air running through them. He asked me to leave the cage and dive at the count of 1, 2 , 3 bungee!! I instead said I won’t hold anything and held onto my collar bones. At 1..2 … 3 … bungee I took the leap of faith!
I was so happy I clapped!
It was the most carefree feeling that I had ever experienced. It was exhilarating, like flying. Till the moment the rope reached its full height and then bounced back pulling me back like a little rag doll, the free falling was amazing, liberating and uplifting. Once the rope bounced back, I kept pirouetting in mid air like a ballerina hung upside down and the cage was lowered slowly into the ground. People from Gravity Zone congratulated me while I was still hung upside down and two team members pulled me down onto an air mattress while they unhooked me from the cage while I was lying on there. I even clapped in air. It was one of the best things I’ve done. It was spontaneous and so strenuous to actually get into doing the 10 minute procedure but it was definitely worth it.
Done!
Maybe jumping off Burj Khalifa wouldn’t feel so bad… ? Is this what suicide jumpers feel like before hitting the ground? I’m just happy that I had a moment of relief and unexplained freedom and another thing ticked off my bucket list! This is like my training jump before I jump off a bridge over River Lyon or Berlin :)
(Skip to 2.11 minutes :)
- T
