Jumping off the world's highest bungee bridge (like a badass)

okay so i’ve shared that my experience on the Garden Route of South Africa was all about getting out of my comfort zone. anytime i travel i am all about adventure, pushing myself, trying and exploring new things and places. but the Garden Route was next level for me.

first it was getting back into the solo travel groove after a month and a half of my perfect cape town life.

then it was canyoning — aka abseiling down a vertical or past-vertical cliff-face, shaking, crying, while my anti-spirit animal, a giant baboon, loomed over me across the canyon. i can’t make this shit up. i thought i hallucinated it. (check my blog on this here)

after that canyoning experience, i honestly believed i could conquer anything. 

so when it came to the Tsitsikamma/Storms River part of my route, it was time to really put my money where my mouth was.

to bungee or not to bungee?

the bungee jump had been looming over me my entire Garden Route. i’ve known about it since i’ve known about the Garden Route — it’s basically a rite of passage — but i had no. desire. to do it.

i don’t like drops okay. i don’t like cliff jumping, steep waterslides, roller coasters, etc, i don’t like that feeling in my stomach. jumping off a bridge did not appeal to me. let alone jumping off the highest bungee bridge in the WORLD.

but there i was a short drive from Bloukran’s Bridge, and i was like… okay. who even am i if i don’t do this? i am an adventurer, i am all about pushing yourself out of my comfort zone. everyone was messaging me saying “you gotta do it.” but i don’t wanna do something because people are pressuring me or i have some sort of “image” to maintain.

i think what it came down to was fomo — i have really bad fomo. when i’m travelling, i cannot pass ANYTHING up. so much so that i run my body to the ground. i couldn’t do the Garden Route without experiencing what the bungee was like.

my mind was made up and i spent the morning freaking out, understandably. it’s not in human nature to jump off a bridge. but here we are.

it’s go-time

i arrived at Bloukrans Bridge, was greeted by the friendly Face Adrenalin team, watched people jump from the viewpoint, and was wondering why this is a thing humans do.

not intimidating. not at all.

then it was time for my group to head to the platform.

my group was like 30 male argentinian rugby players, and me. LOL. i love latin culture and i may or may not have said in the past that when i’m ready to get married i will go to Argentina. the universe inserted a baboon into my canyoning, but it sure threw me a bone on the bungee.

so this was a fun distraction! everyone was super nice and it was pretty hilarious heading over there to be honest — some of them were DEFINITELY more nervous than me. but by this point, i wouldn’t even say i was nervous. it was mind over matter, it was go-time.

we ziplined to the middle of the bridge. i’ve ziplined quite a few times and it doesn’t make me nervous, so that was fun!

reaching the platform, the mood shifted. the Face Adrenalin guys are AWESOME. they are dancing as they pull the bungee up, everyone’s smiling at me (they’re probably like miss are you lost?), taking selfies, they are bumping music and some are my favourite afro beats that i’ve been loving from cape town like umlilo and john cena.

i literally just danced the entire time on the platform.

i have to tell you something that has low key changed my life, and it came from the book the Power of Now. it’s about controlling your emotions. it’s about recognizing them as just emotions. we are not our minds, we are not our emotions. so when you’re sad or anxious or angry, recognize that feeling but remind yourself that it doesn’t consume you, it’s just an emotion, not who you are, and it will pass.

the world’s highest bridge bungee jump taught me i could master the emotion of fear.

yes i was going to jump off a bridge, and yes it is completely against human nature, and yes i SHOULD be completely terrified. it would be so weird if i wasn’t. but i recognized it as fear, and so i danced the whole time and then they strapped up my ankles and then i shuffled over to that ledge.

my friend henry had told me before that it’s better if you actually jump, or dive, as so many people just shuffle or stumble across the ledge.

the Face Adrenalin guys gave me the nudge cue and i freaking swan dove off that thing. they told me later i jumped the furthest of the day.

honestly i kinda blacked out on the jump — i mean i was free falling through the air, i don’t think i was really processing it. the fall lasts like 4 seconds. but then you bounce back up again to like 3/4 the original height, and fall back down again, and THAT was the scariest for me because this is when i was starting to get coherent. i felt THAT drop.

and then your bouncing minimized and eventually you’re just hanging upside down in this completely silent, beautiful canyon, in south africa, by your ankles, and everything is a-okay. i did it—i could breathe.

okay at this point i was hanging in my socks (they took off my shoes cause they said they were too loose, so make sure you tighten your shoes) and i kinda felt like i was gonna slide right through the ankle things so was flexing my ankles like my life depended on it (i honestly kinda thought it did) so ya that part was a bit stressful lol.

anyway, the guy rappels down to get you and you get pulled up to the platform and they lay you down and everyone comforts you and asks how it was and you realize it was epic.

thoughts upon surviving

i don’t know if i’ll bungee again — who are we kidding, if the opportunity comes up of course i will, fomo, remember? — but i am SO. GLAD. I DID THIS.

not only would i have regretted not finding out what it was like, but i swear i was on a high for like 3 ways. i’ve watched my video (swipe to the end) a gazillion times, my stomach drops when i watch myself dive off that bridge, every time i hear umlilo it takes me right back to that moment. it’s insane. i am so proud of myself for not only doing it, but actually just GOING FOR IT so hard. i made fear my bitch that day.

my advice to anyone thinking about doing the bungee, or thinking about doing anything out of your comfort zone really, is to absolutely DO IT. you don’t want to live with regrets. what’s the worst that can happen? i wasn’t scared about the bungee breaking and me dying (that would be very concerning), i was scared about the fear of it. and that drop feeling, which is like 4 seconds of my life that i can deal with.

so do it — and do it full force. cause is there any other way to go through life?