Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Guest entry - Mark (on skydiving in Swakopmund)


SWAKOPMUND - The place where all things that make you shit yourself happen. Most people on our tour have been looking forward to this place for about a week. We can do skydiving, sandboarding, quadbiking and anything adrenaline fueled. The other reason were all quite pumped for it is that we get to stay in a dorm instead of a tent and get fairly (ridiculously) drunk. Four of us decide to do skydiving, half for the skydiving and half for the piss up beforehand.


Get picked up in some truck thing and fly across the desert to this tiny remote shack where harnesses hang like dead bodies round the room. First thing I notice is that they are all red (off baby pink) and look very top gunesque. We all have our safety briefing (brief being a big part of it) and just start drinking to soften the idea of the worst case scenario landing. Emma goes first shortly followed by Mole and T-Bag. Me and Jason go last and the flight up seems to be lasting forever. The fact that all around you can see is desert probably doesn't help things and some german bloke sitting next to me has his leg hanging out of the open space where there should clearly be a door.

 
I'm first jumping out and sitting on the edge felt rather strange although I was only there for like 2 seconds. One thing I did notice is that they should change it to a skyfalloutofadoor instead of skydive cos I dont know about everyone else's experience but I didn't do much diving. The freefall was well cool and it didn't seem scary due to the floor just not getting any closer as you fell. The coolest part for me though was when the shute was pulled (nearly ripping off my bollocks) and there was complete silence. The stupid goggles come down around your neck and all of a sudden the realisation that your floating like 3-4000 foot over a desert in Africa kicks in. The bloke was well cool and let us all take control of it and said to me do what you want. After like 30 seconds of trying my best to flip us over he takes the controls ready for landing. The landing was smoother than my unshaven chest and the beers were back in play. Well worth the money and all five of us were left wanting to do it again.

Mark x




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