At no point in my life have I been so intimately harnessed to another human being.
But then again, at no point have I ever leapt from an aeroplane at 11 000 feet. But I did it. I was tucked and hooked and clipped in a surprisingly snug and reassuring fashion to Craig, who’d assured me he was a veteran of 5000 such jumps, and perched in the open doorway of a single-prop aeroplane. Above us was the wing; the air was filled with the unmistakable smell of aeronautical fuel and the pressure of the wind … well, it was Very Windy. Would I land in Kansas?
Craig tapped my shoulder, we leapt into the unknown and the world unfolded beneath us. I spent a frantic couple of seconds calming my breathing (through the nose is best, I think, although I am clearly no expert). It felt like a lifetime, that freefall, but they tell me it was just six seconds before the parachute opened. With limbs jerking we slowed. ‘Let’s do some circles,’ Craig said, persuading the chute to describe an arc. ‘Let’s not,’ I replied. I”d rather just admire the scenery.’ Chicken to the end, you see…
Gosh, but the world is beautiful when you’re flying above it. Once more, I think. Just once more… Craig at Robertson, you up for it?
Team Africa Geographic (me and Janine van Eeden), with Digs Pascoe, CEO of the Space for Elephants Foundation.
