Into the Abyss

Mark, Sara, Kevin and I made the 6-hour journey this past weekend to Knysna (NIES-nuh) up the Garden Route at the edge of the Western Cape. It was a beautiful little town, despite the winter weather and it being the off-season. It actually really reminded me of home a bit, a quiet little seaside town with a few local shops, decent restaurants and a scenic waterfront. Except that Gloucester is not on a lagoon guarded by two giant rock outcroppings called, simply, "The Heads." The excitement of the weekend truly came when Kevin, Mark and Sara decided to make the journey to Bloukrans Bridge on Saturday to make the world's highest bungy jump. As you probably already guessed, I decided to watch them make the world's highest bungy jump, rather than participating. Kevin was even a little squeamish about jumping 216 metres - that's 702 feet to you and me - tied only to an admittedly large piece of elastic. However, he quickly decided to do it upon arrival, not least because he was talked into it by Lindsay Clubine, who we met at the jump site.
Who is Lindsay Clubine you ask? (Remember, I am not making any of this up, and there were witnesses.) Lindsay is better known as Model #26 from the hit American game show, "Deal or No Deal." She also does work for HDNet, going adventure travelling across the globe and filming it for a programme called "Get Out!" Oh right, and she was recently named one of People Magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People in the world.
I repeat, I am making none of this up. You can check IMDB.
So needless to say, after some gentle urging, squeamish Kevin turned into manly Kevin and decided to essentially jump out of a 70-story building towards a river below.
It was definitely fun to watch these idiots cheat death though. They were in freefall for 8 seconds. (I may have to have a guest blog from one of them to tell you exactly what it feels like.) Yeah, 8 seconds. That's before the cord catches you. Essentially, it's about as close as you can get to sky diving without jumping out of a plane. I took some fun pictures, I'll post them on
facebook when I get the chance. You won't believe how far 216 metres really is.
Like I said, I'm glad I watched.
Cheers.

P.S. I'm going to go see Barack Obama (!) speak here in Cape Town in about an hour. I'm pretty sure I'll have a report on that later.
P.P.S. Somebody watch the next installment of "Deal or No Deal" for me and let me know if #26 is as amazingly hot on television as she is in real life.