Take your parachute.....and JUMP!!

The next morning when we were checking out of Scotty's Beach House, the girl on reception asked us if we would like to do a Sky Dive as there were some places available for that day. We were planning a bit of a long trip that day so we asked her how late we would have to stay there. She told us we would be back on the ground, having already completed the jump within an hour and a half, and that a bus would pick us up in 30 mins. We couldn't believe it would happen that fast but we decided to go for it.

The bus picked us up, and after about 20 mins, we were at the airstrip in Tully. There was a 5 minute training course on how to position ourselves during the jump, and that was it. I had heard that in Ireland you have like a half days training to prepare for this but not here. The jump was a 14,000ft jump with a 60 second freefall. While we were there, we bumped into the guy from our room in Gilligan's. He had booked his jump over a week ago, while we were staying with him in Cairns, and here we were, about to jump before him!

We were getting the whole jump filmed so that we could get it all on DVD at the end, so the whole time, the instructors had Camcorders in our faces, capturing the nervous looks, and grins. We were brought out to the plane, and I was shocked at how small it was. There was no door on it, and just about enough room for the 8 of us to fit in. There was 4 instructors and 4 jumpers.

After the plane took off, the instructors kept showing us the gauge showing us how high we were at each stage of the climb. The view from the aeroplane was absolutley amazing. Somehow, I hadn't quite developed a fear of jumping, I guess I hadn't had enough time to think about it. Eventually, we were at the required height of 14000ft. After that, it was literally a few seconds before the first girl had jumped, Jason was in the doorway getting his countdown of 3..2..1......and he was gone,just like a concrete block, I was told to cross my arms and put my legs out the door...The force of the wind against my legs was really strong, and as I awaited some sort of a countdown, I felt a push from behind and I was already gone....I went spinning out the door, upside down, and around until finally, I was in the correct position facing the ground with the wind hurling up at me as I fell. I cant explain the sensation, it was unreal and the fact that the ground was a dot in front of me, didnt even enter my head at the time. During the 60 second freefall, my skin was forced up on my face and my mouth was blown open wide as I gasped for a breath. The instructor tried to get me to wave at the camera but I was in awe of the whole thing and didnt quite pull it off correctly as you will see from the DVD..By the end of the 60 seconds, I was beginning to feel a bit nautious, so I was relieved when he pulled the chute open.

There was a tug upwards as we slowed right down, and my body fell back into a virtical position. We had fallen 12,000ft in 60 seconds. The view from here was even more amazing, and I had a complete feeling of weighlessness. It was great. The instructor pulled on the chute a couple of times to make us do circles and that was so cool. The weather was amazing that day too so it just made the whole thing even better.

The landing spot was on Mission Beach and I could see it below me. Another couple of turns and we were coming down on it. I lifted my legs and the instructor landed us on the beach with just a little bump. It was over....and it had only just began.

We got the DVD a couple of days later and I have to say, they are absolutely hilarious. I will be getting it copied and will send a copy to you.