I certainly saw above and beyond what I ever believed I would be able to see.
Ok, so a few of you have had a guess at this crazy thing I said I was going to do and a couple even guessed right. I am still in shock that I did but hands down it was the most terrifying and exhilarating experience of my entire life and I want to go again!
If you had asked me when I was still back in England if I wanted to this, I would have said “On your bike” not in a million years did I believe I was capable of making myself do such a thing. But as I have already said, this gap year is all about stepping out of my comfort zone and facing my fears. I don’t want fear to hold me back because I would miss out on so much. The world is an open book and I want to explore every single word of it. And I started pretty high up! I am feeling pretty proud of myself and it just shows that you never know what your limit is until you push yourself as far as you can go.
On Friday, I got in a tiny plane, strapped to a man, flew around the coast of Plettenburg bay and then jumped out of a plane at 10,000ft and plummeted to the earth in free fall for 34 seconds before gliding to the earth. Words cannot explain how amazing it was. I was so scared and I had to wait all day but my god was it worth the wait. I had to wait for 7 people to go before me when I had been desperate to go first and I had to watch my friend fall out of the plane right before my eyes. At that point I wanted to give up and I was screaming “NO!” at the instructor but be shuffled me towards the door and out we went. I cannot even explain how amazing the sensation was. I was speechless. After the shute went up I was just in a daze. I wasn’t scared any more, my fear of heights just evaporated as I felt like I was floating and it was beautiful. I was able to fly above the gorgeous coast of South Africa and I would recommend this to anyone. Just wow.
I am hoping to upload the video of my skydive but unfortunately this will have to wait as the internet here is pretty poor.
I also had quite an incredible, albeit less exciting experience today and as a result I have a very sore bum! I went on a horseback safari with a couple of the girls and we were able to get up so close to the animals, I was literally right next to two rhinos!
And to finish off, a quick note about the elephants. Once every two weeks, we do all night boma observations. My shift was half 11 till half 12 at night. I learnt so much about the animals in such a short space of time! Elephants do not sleep all through the night, they sleep around an hour and then they get up and eat for a while before going back to sleep. I told you they eat a lot. They also do lie down when they sleep, they can sleep standing but most of the time they lie down, and in Thato’s case, she flops out as soon as the lights go out. It was breathtaking watching the elephants at night, they seemed so peaceful and I was at ease just listening to deeply breathing and munching away and then they very quickly ruined it by farting. By George are they gassy animals – especially at night! They fart all the time and go to the toilet all the time as well, but that’s because they only digest 40-45% of their food. I also saw what it was like when an elephant gets spooked. Thato was just casually munching on her branches then suddenly she started running round the boma and all the sleeping elephants and munching elephants jumped up as well and started running in circles. Then they all stopped, dead still, when Sally (the head of the herd) trumpeted really loudly. It was quite a bizarre thing to experience and I have absolutely no idea what spooked Thato.
One final note, you’ll be pleased to know that my drunken pool skills have improved. I managed to pot two balls last night with no help at all.
Georgie's Travel Blog 2014-2015 