And a fool I am! But it helps when you have the man who taught you how to be the best fool you can be, come to Uganda for a visit. My dad made the long trip across the Atlantic and arrived ready to spend quality time and share some amazing experiences with Katie and me. He is our first visitor since coming to Uganda and we saved up a lot of action-packed trips for him with lots of travel and not a lot of rest. One would think that we would let him rest before we started our journey, but forget that. The day after he arrived we took him to the Nile River to bungee jump over it! This would be the first time bungee jumping for him or me, and needless to say, we were both nervous but excited.
We arrived at Adrift Adventures and saw the jumping platform, which at first glance didn’t look so bad. Katie and our friend Joe, who was tagging along, grabbed a drink at the bar while Dad and I started our ascent up the steps to the platform. The jump didn’t look that high before, but as we walked the never-ending stairs, we started to realize that the jump was much higher than it previously looked. We finally made it to the top of the steps and were greeted on the platform by two smiling guys that were ready to throw us off of it.
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| Who's ready to test some African safety regulations! |
Dad volunteered to go first which was perfectly fine by me. He sat down in a nicely carved wooden throne and the worker wrapped a towel around his legs followed by a rope tied in a slipknot. The other guy explained the process and how this small piece of rope was going to prevent us from crashing into the water after we jumped (a slipknot apparently gets tighter as you pull on it). After getting hooked into the bungee line, Dad stood up from the chair and waddled his way towards the edge. I was terrified enough standing on the edge knowing that I was up next, so I can only imagine what was going through his head. Now standing on the edge, the guy told him to release his grip from the upper bar and jump at the end of the countdown. The countdown was started by the guy and joined in by the crowd below at the bar. 3, 2, 1, BUNGEE and there was a slight pause until a yell and a dive off the edge. Thankfully the rope held and Dad went inches from the water only to bounce back up and down a few times until the raft below was able to grab a hold of him and pull him on-board.
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| View from the top just about to jump. |
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| View from the bottom either before coming back up or at the end. |
After Dad got pulled into the raft, I then I lowered myself into the chair and got my legs tied up for the jump. Seeing someone go first puts your mind at ease a bit, but when you waddle to the edge and grip the bar above that ease just disappears and turns to an "am I seriously doing this" feeling. The guy told me to release my grip and my mind shouted "forget that, I’m holding on," but my arms slowly peeled away and outstretched to my sides. I think I faintly heard the countdown and at BUNGEE paused for what seemed to be an eternity before I finally shouted “Tugende!” (which means let’s go), and jumped off the edge. I expected to have the losing my stomach feeling the entire way down, but like with skydiving, you really don’t even feel like you are falling. You just feel the wind racing by you as you get closer and closer to the water/ground. The pull back up wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be either. Before I even knew that I was about to go back up, I was already flying up and away from the water and back towards the platform. I think this was the second scariest part (first being the initial jump), as there is a pause in the air as your upward momentum gives way to gravity pulling you back down to Earth. I bounced a few times before reaching out to a paddle and being brought down to the waiting raft below.
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| Jumping off with the camera attached to my back. |
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| The raft waiting below as I bounce around. |
Dad was there to greet me off of the raft and we shared a "holy crap we survived jumping off a 44 meter (144 feet) platform" hug. We went to the bar and celebrated our survival with some Nile Special beer, pizza, and a drink while upside down in a kayak.
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| Beer tastes better when in a kayak...upside down. |
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| Experiences like this are why he came to Uganda. |
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