Two weeks ago, our school program brought us on a farm trip! A big group of us drove 3 hours and an hour of that was literally driving through the mountains. We stayed at a farmer's house and enjoyed some amazing South African hospitality! The woman would get offended if I declined her offer of tea and milk. At the farm, we fed their farm animals they had (all of these animals were rescued). They had donkey, springbok, kudu, baby lamb, baby goat, baby kudu, cow, and other animals that I don't know the names of. Funny story - when we were walking to the donkey, the farmer asked if any of us have seen a baby donkey before. We all said that we didn't, and we were surprised when we came across the baby donkey. He was laughing at our surprised faces and told us that it wasn't a baby donkey at all - donkeys don't have horns! It turns out that the donkey went to another part of the farm, scared this baby's mother away, and took the baby as its own! This baby now waits by the fence door when the donkey is away and runs up to the donkey when it returns, never leaving its side.
We also were able to milk their dairy cows. It's funny that I live in Minnesota, but the first time that I've milked a cow was in South Africa. We also were able to taste the milk straight from the utter, and it was probably the best milk I have ever had!
The thing I was looking forward to the most was feeding the baby lamb! If you know me and my crazy obsession for lamb, then you know that my life is now made. :)
After the lamb, we went to the sheep and sheered the wool off of the sheep - I couldn't get over how soft it was! Definitely stole some of that to take with me. We rode in the back of the farmer's jeep to try to get on top of a mountain, and it was the most fun I have ever had in the back of a truck! We came across some ostrich and we drove and chased them! I could not stop laughing at the sight of them running right in front of us! It was amazing being able to get away from the city and enjoy a nice relaxing, mountain lifestyle.
This past weekend, I also did the unimaginable ... BUNGEE JUMPING!!! I went into this trip telling myself that I would NEVER go bungee jumping, not trusting to put my life into some bungee chords hands. After watching some of my friend's videos and hearing their stories, there was a tug inside me telling me that I NEED to do this. First of all, the bridge I would jump off of is the tallest bungee jumping bridge IN THE WORLD!!! I knew that I would regret not doing it. Second of all, I am such an adrenalin junkie, and everyone kept telling me that this is the ultimate adrenalin thrill - there is no feeling like it! Obviously, I cannot pass up that opportunity! Thirdly, I did some researching and found out that this company has a 100% safety guarantee! Whoa! That was a huge break-through. And lastly, bungee jumping in Africa has been on my bucket list for awhile, so this was an opportunity of a life time to cross that baby off!
Obviously, after thinking about it for awhile, it was inevitable that I needed to do this, and I signed me and 4 of my friends up with only notifying my mom!!! The day of our bungee jumping quickly arrived, and the nervous-excited feelings came over me! I honestly could not believe that I was going to be spending money on jumping off of a bridge! We arrived, and after some many nervous pee breaks, we went to the register and signed our lives away... They also gave us our bungee numbers!We were then directed to put our harnesses on, and we were freaking out because they did not seem secure at all - how could this flimsy harness hold our bodies after free falling???
Our guide came up, explained the bungee procedures, and then started walking us towards the bridge. Walking to the bridge was exhilarating! We needed to walk 200 meters beside the bridge and the bottom of the walk-way was see-through, and it was crazy looking down 709 feet to the ground and looking to the sides of us into the ocean!
When we finally arrived to the middle of the bridge, I started getting extremely nervous! There was no turning back now. I found out that I was the 4th jumper to go, and I was directed to the getting ready station. Luckily, the crew was extremely friendly and there was music blasting the whole time, so I danced my nerves away! My friend, Aspen, was the 2nd jumper to go, and it was so nerve-racking watching her jump up to the side of the bridge, hearing the people yell "5,4,3,2,1 BUNGEE!" and watching her jump and free-fall. I could see her whole jump from a big-screen TV and after seeing her safely dangle at the bottom, I felt better about the whole thing! If Aspen could do it, I could do it!
Before I knew it, I was next to jump and was getting my ankles tied up. It freaked me out knowing that a cord tied to my feet was going to hold me up, but I trusted that everything was going to be okay.Then, I was escorted up, and I shuffled my way to the edge of the bridge...
"5,4,3,2,1 BUNGEE!" and I was off! No words can describe the first 2 seconds ... I was jumping in mid-air and at that point, it did not feel like I was attached to anything. It was just me literally jumping off of a bridge and about to fall 709 feet to the bottom!
After that first shocked reaction, it literally felt like I was flying in the air zooming towards the ground! The most amazing feeling I have ever felt in my life.
Then after 5 seconds of free-falling (the longest 5 seconds ever), I felt the bungee cord tighten around my ankles, and I was bouncing and dangling in mid-air. The beauty around me was magnificent - to one side of me was dense forest and the other side was the ocean. As I was dangling there, I started crying because it was honestly the most exhilarating, freaky thing I have ever done in my life!
After they pulled me back up, I was on an adrenalin rush for the rest of the day!
Me and my friends could not believe what we have just done, and looking back on it now, it seems completely crazy! But I totally recommend doing this to everyone! There was a 60 year old man in our group that jumped for his birthday!!! He said it was one of the most amazing birthdays he has had.
"Fear is only temporary, Regret is FOREVER". This will now be my life motto - go out from now on never holding back because of something that you may fear. You never know what an amazing experience you would miss out on.
xoxo Nicole
No comments:
Post a Comment