Sunday was a day of adrenaline. We woke up in Jinja and had a wonderful English breakfast. There were 10 of us who wanted to bungee jump over the Nile, so it was decided that 5 would go before white water rafting and 5 would go afterward. I was in the group who decided to go first as I wanted to do it and be done with it.
After breakfast, I paid my $55 and signed the waiver. One of the requirements of bungee jumping is that they have to know how much you weigh so they can adjust the tension in the bungee cord; you can imagine my horror at this concept because not only do they weigh you, but they write it down on the form that everyone signs and then write in on the back of your hand in permanent marker. The good news was that they weighed me in kilograms, so until I did the conversion, I was unsure how much I weighed (more good news… I did lose weight over the 6 weeks). Once your weight is tattooed on your hand, you can go out onto the crane over the Nile.
I was the second person to jump. When they are ready for you, you walk out to the platform and sit in what I can only describe as a chair used in electrocutions. There were two men out on the platform; one walks you through the process as the other begins preparing you for the jump by wrapping a towel and webbing around your ankles. This is tied very tightly; I now have bruises where this was because of how tight it was, but I am not complaining about that at all. Once this is tied, they attach the bungee cord to this. They asked if I wanted to touch the Nile, and I said, “Why not?”. He then mentioned that I needed to remember to prepare for being immersed by placing my hands above my head, tucking my head, and closing my eyes. All I could think was, “I am getting ready to jump off a perfectly good platform and free fall 140 feet, and you expect me to remember to tuck my head and close my eyes!?!?” I asked him if I should just fall forward or bend my knees and dive out. He said I could do either one, and it would be fine. He then asked which way I planned to go. I replied, “I have no idea. I guess I will find out when I get to the ledge.”
When I was all connected, one of the guys told me I was 100% safe. I asked him if he really believed that and he said yes. I replied, “Well, if you are wrong, then I am going to come back from the grave and haunt you.” This freaked him out a little as evidently he was very superstitious.
As soon as you are connected, they say you are safe to stand and move around. I hopped closer to the edge; this was very awkward as you really can’t move your legs since they are tied together. As I got closer to the edge, I crept and grabbed onto a yellow bar overhead. The other guy very gently begins talking you through the process; he has you look out across the ravine to an arrow on top of the bar at Adrift (never look down). I then waved to my friends. As I was waving and standing at the edge of the platform, my heart was pounding so hard, I felt like it was going to rip open my chest and just fly out. What have I gotten myself into? Why did I say I wanted to do this? Am I crazy?
I then released the yellow bar and slowly lowered my hands to my sides. He counted down… 3…2…1… I bent my knees, spread my arms out on either side and dove forward and out. OMG!! The dive was beautiful, I fell toward the Nile, and it was the coolest feeling in the world. Before I knew it, the cord tightened and pulled me back up; it didn’t hurt or jerk at all. I bounced gently up and down several times and then just began swinging back and forth. It was so beautiful to just swing over the Nile.
Once I slowed down, they began lowering the cord; there’s a boat with two guys in it, so I was lowered into that. It was probably the most difficult part as I was still swinging back and forth. Finally one of the guys held out his oar and told me to grab it. After several missed attempts (the handle is very skinny), I grabbed hold but kept swinging so I had to let go. I finally was able to grab it again and hold on to be lowered into the boat. As they were rowing me back to shore, we chatted for a couple of minutes. I asked them if they had ever jumped, and they both replied, “many times. When the cords need to be tested, we are the ones who do the testing.” He said it so nonchalantly, but I remember thinking what a crazy job description that would be. They paddled me over to the steps, and I walked back up. It’s a pretty steep walk back up; for the first part, I almost ran most of the way due to the adrenaline rush. That feeling ebbed about halfway up, so the rest of the ascent was a little difficult. However it was amazing, and when I am 90 and sitting in my rocker on the porch, I will look back on that experience and smile.
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