The last 6 days in Mission Beach have been wonderful. I admit, most days we have taken full advantage of the living-room style layout with a hard drive of films. I watched the film 'Taken' for the first time, one of the most powerful but disturbing films I have seen. Watch it!
Me Laura and Clare found 3 inviting deck chairs on the beach, and I read to them out loud, a lovely afternoon! The heat here is intense! We have met some great people, Alice, Amber, Mika and Paddy, to name a few.
Now to the highlight of the week; our skydive. Of course parachuting out of an aeroplane is going to be intense, but it was more insane than I could of ever imagined. We piled into an aircraft that looked like a toy, straddled seats strapped to a man behind us, and looked out the windows as we flew through clouds to a height that made Australia look like a satellite image. I was higher than I ever imagined. 'Don't look down' -we kept telling ourselves, but of course we did, the plane was like a green house! 14,000 feet and land was hardly visible, the idea of choosing to climb out of the aircraft seemed ridiculous. The door slid open. The first tandem pair approached the exit, sat on the edge of the plane, head up, back arched, and gone. They were swept away like a twig in a cyclone! It was terrifying to watch this 9 times before my turn. I remember Laura's face of determination, and Clare's watery eyes as she held her own face. Laura went, then Clare went, and I was last. We sat on the edge of the plane, I escaped my own mind, there's no other option really. My legs were being pulled by the wind, he lifted my chin back, I heard 'steady and go!' and I was falling like a tennis ball through the sky. It was literally insane! I remember it in stages, first i couldn't function or make sense of anything, it was just some kind of auto pilot, a manic existence. Then I realised the feeling in my body, the feeling of ultimate speed and butterfly's, like someone stealing my stomach and throwing it. It was a new league of adrenaline and excitement that nothing else in the world could create. I thought my ears were going to fly off, and my mouth was literally flapping in the wind. Everything I had been told to do with my arms and legs just flew out the window and apparently I was peddling a none existent bike. I was pleased to realise I could breathe, although it took a second or two to remember. The free fall went on for around 60 seconds, 10,000 feet, but the ground got no closer. Usually when you are falling, like on a roller coaster, there are handle bars, a few seconds when you have reached maximum speed, then it slows down, but this was continuous free fall with only your own arms to hold on to. We were flyyyyyyyying!
The parachute opened after 10,000 feet and we jolted and flew up in the air. I checked my ears were attached. At this point it was relaxing, and we could hear each other talk. I invented numerous swear words at this point, 'JESUS MOTHERING ACTUAL CHRIST' and got stuck on repeat. It's all I could say. He must have thought I was either highly religious or just suffering from some form of Tourette's syndrome. But he laughed. Goggles off, and we sailed down through clouds with our own shadow projecting onto the cloud below with a rainbow ring around it. Paradise! I looked up and saw Clare and looked down and saw Laura, they looked like birds. 8 or so minutes later and we landed on the beach one by one, i ran around screaming to burn some of my adrenaline. It was incredible.
It took a good few hours to come back down to earth, we were re living parts for hours, and laughing hysterically at our wobbling air filled cheeks from the DVD. I take my hat off to those skydiver instructors, who throw them selves off a plane 9 times a day.
What a day.
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