Falling To Earth... From 160ft.

Activities

Oct 10

Our first ever bungee jump!

I can blame the paragliding on Taran, but I actually booked this adrenaline-filled adventure..

So Taran was immediately reluctant when I told him about it in August. It was his birthday present and it looked like it might have been a bad choice by the look on his face... I was all "but it's a tandem, which means we hug! and go together! its romantic...". He was not keen!

Once over the initial wide-eyed "I'd rather not", Taran came around to the idea, and so the date was set for October 4th!

The morning of the jump I woke up nervous and couldn't stomach breakfast. I had a little cry (yes really) and a moment of being unsure if I wanted to jump, the tables had turned and it was Taran reassuring me about how amazing it would be this time :P The weather was looking pretty poor for the whole day, but it wasn't windy which would be the only reason for the jump to be called off.

So we drove to Windsor, Bray Lake Watersports, around midday, the rain didnt stop at all and we knew we were going to get a tad wet!

Taran looking a bit more happy about the jump..

Parking up, walking toward the lake, we saw the crane, and it was, rather tall... Oh crap. More nerves set in. It was raining quite hard now so I had cold shivers as well as scared ones.

First things first we had some forms to fill out. We were weighed, and then sent to the seating area opposite the crane. Fitted with our waist harnesses, we watched as the first people started to jump. UKBungee run the jumps, and everything ran smoothly and professionally.

One guy's jump was very much him flailing about, waving his arms in absolute terror. I hoped our jump would be more graceful.

So came the time for our ankle harnessing. All the guys at UK Bungee were super friendly and relaxed, which rubbed off on us. By the time it came for us to jump our nerves were totally under control and we couldn't wait now!

It was our turn! So we carefully hopped over to the crane cabin, ready to go up!

Taran teeters on the edge! I am in front of him, holding tight.

Here we go!!

The guy chatted to us as we rose higher and I winced at the view. It was an amazing view but I was just a little too apprehensive to let go of Taran and really look around.

Taran remarked it was like being in the cage from Jurassic Park 2, high up above the trees...

Within moments we were positioned, Taran with his feet half of the edge, myself with my arms tightly squeezing him, my chin tucked in. My job was just to cuddle tightly and enjoy the jump! And also not look up or we'd of had a big old head-butt.

Our bungee guy did the pre-checks and told us not to grab him, or the side of the crane when we jumped. This was the most scary part, letting go of the cage and just standing half off the edge!

We didn't actually have to force ourselves to jump, the guy would be helping us off the edge. He then proceeded to rock us back and forth, counting down from 5... Taran said "Your gonna push us on 2 aren't you..." he replied "I'm not gunna push you on 2" and with that off we went, on 3...

Down we went, like a lead balloon!

I screamed, twice, with the initial drop feeling incredible, unlike anything we'd ever felt before. Brief weightlessness, flying, falling! Taran 'woohed' with excitement. I then laughed hysterically.

At no point did the drop hurt or feel jolting, it simply felt amazing. We were both giggling and Taran started seeing stars. Such a buzz, such a cool feeling!

We were then hoisted down onto padding where they took our harnessing off and I was in a bit of a daze, smiling like an idiot. The buzz was so awesome, it didn't leave us for quite a while that rainy October day :)

We would definitely do it again, maybe from higher up as it was the few seconds of free-fall that made it all worth it!