More on flying - and falling

This site deserves a peek for its amazing videos of harsh landings on the world't most dangerous airports:

 http://www.otbeach.com/news/airlines-and-airports--1/top-10-most-dangerous-aircraft-l

andings-in-the-world--418.html

I haven't been in such a flight or really bad turbulence but it really looks fun. I guess I could call my bungee jump in Victoria Falls in June 2006 a flight though. No fuselage, just a rope attaching my ankles and a couple of seconds in free fall.

It's difficult to explain what I felt. I was in a Conference in Zambia, held at Sun Hotel in Livingstone, a walking distance to the Victoria Falls Park. It was also possible to visit the Zimbabwean side of the falls, crossing the border on foot. They have this bungee jump platform on a bridge over a stream beside the Falls. It's the second highest jump of this kind in the world, at 108 m from the river. And it would be my first try.

It was the day after the Conference ended and the organizers would have a bus take us from the hotel to the airport after lunch. If I really wanted to jump, I'd have to be among the first in line so as to have time to come back to the hotel and 

board the bus. I wake up early, walk to the bridge, a slight headache that got stronger as close as I got to the spot, questioning myself if I'd have the guts to jump. I arrive, pay the fee, watch a video with instructions and information, sign a form releasing the company of responsability if I died or suffered injury, go to the platform, my blood pressure falls, a towel and a rope are attached to my ankles and waistline, I start sweating, a line forms behind me for the jump, a dilemma becomes unbearable: if I don't jump, I'll feel so embarassed, such a coward, that I'll never forgive myself; but I apparently can't muster the courage and bring my body to obey me. I approach the tip of the platform, feel the wind and the emptiness that surround me. I can't resist doing what I should not: looking down. Then I tell the guy responsible for the jump:

- I can't do it. I can't.

- Yes, of course you can, he replies.

- No, I can't.

- Oh, c'mon, you can.

- Ok, but you'll have to push me.

- Ok, I'll count to 5 and push you. 1... 2... 3...

And he pushes me. It was such a gentle push but enough to make me lose ground. I not only was caught by surprise, I obviously had no strength left in my legs. Absolute despair (see the picture). And then one of the weirdest sensations invades me: the certainty of death. I remember thinking that all was gone and nothing else was important. I thought of my mother. I guess I didn't have time for my whole life story, things done, things not accomplished, to flash before my eyes. I also felt a deep sense of freedom, of liberation perhaps. Until I reach the bottom point and get pushed up to the half of the height by the rope's tension and realize I could still enjoy the rest of my jump, dropping 3 more times and I could still enjoy life. And then as soon as I'm lifted 

back to the platform, I feel this urge to jump again. Unfortunately I had to rush back to the hotel.

Time has passed and I probably lost a lot of the courage I 

mustered just after the jump. But I still look forward for the highest jump worldwide, which happens to be, at 216 m, twice as high (that's Bloukrans Bridge, in South Africa)

By the way, I'd highly recommend visiting Victoria Falls and staying for a few days in one of the hotels in the vicinity. Besides the sheer size and wonder of the Falls and the surrounding forest, the view of River Zambezi at sunset, as elephants and other animals cross it, and an orange light pervades the sky before a quasi-total black sets in, are well worth the trip. Even more so if you happen to be in the hotel's restaurant, facing the river and sipping wine while this nature wonder unfolds.