On Cloud 9

I promised a recount of my skydiving adventure. So here goes (in minuscule, painful detail)

Warwick's skydiving club organises a charity skydiving event every year - The Great Warwick Jump. Basically I had to raise a minimum of 300 quid to cover the cost of the skydive with the rest going to the charity of my choice. So -

March 15th - This was the weekend we were originally supposed to jump. But we got to the dropzone in Hibaldstow (which is in the back of beyond, might I add. It's about as ulu as it can get) and found ourselves in a weather hold. The clouds were too dense and low so no one was allowed to jump. We hung around from 7 am to 9 pm. Dissapointed, we came back only to discover that the others, who had roughed it out overnight, were greeted by clear skies the next morning and managed to come back having completed their jumps.

So 2 weekends ago, the skydiving club organised another trip to Hibaldstow. That, I have to say, was the most adrenaline pumped day of my life and not just because of the jump.

I woke up to realise that I had overslept and missed the minibus taking us to the dropzone. Brilliant right?
Well I wasn't going to miss yet another chance at skydiving so I decided to hop on a train to get there. Took me 2 changes and a cab ride (I told you this place was ulu) but get there I did in the end.

Skydiving seems to entail a lot of waiting - for your turn, for the wind to die down, for the cloud to thin out. So I waited. And waited.

None too soon I was pulling on a jumpsuit and being strapped into a harness by my tandem instructor. It feels like you're being compressed when you're in it. We went through a final round of instructions about what we were supposed to do, then made our way out to wait for the plane.

It's one of those really old-fashioned WW2 planes that look like they're about to fall apart at any moment. Yeah, this was what was going to carry me 15,000 feet into the air. The plane lands after having dropped off another batch of skydivers, and we clamber in. There was one other tandem jumper apart from me, the others being seasoned skydivers. There are 2 benches in the tiny compartment and 15 people to squeeze onto them. It's soo packed. We're pretty much sitting with our faces pressed into the back of the person in front of us.

We took off and I could see the ground falling away pretty quickly. The instructor, Chris kept pointing out the different altitudes. Funny though, I didn't really feel scared. There was a huge amount of anticipation but not so much nerves.

Everyone's pretty much sitting quietly or talking amongst themselves. Then at one point, there's a flurry of activity. Everyone is turning to each other and giving high fives, and secret handshakes. People are saying to me "have a good jump" and "don't forget to enjoy yourself". I have to sit on Chris' lap as someone else fastens us together and checks the buckles and straps one last time.

The door/hatch is opened and in the space of less than 10 seconds all the experienced jumpers have disappeared. The other guy and his instructor melt into the sky and then we're kneeling in front of the door and all I can see out of it is blue blue sky dotted with clouds, and then we're in the blue blue sky.

We just fell. Non-stop with nothing to slow us down. I kept waiting for us to hit the ground. It's so strange but somehow I felt safe knowing that I was falling and wasn't going to fall flat on my face. For 50 whole seconds we just fell. And for a good 20 seconds of that I was screaming my lungs out. I think at one point the instructor's hand came round to cover my mouth. Lol. After a while I just ran out of breath and decided to enjoy the rest of the fall in silence. Well, you couldn't call it silence. We were falling so fast the wind was deafening. And it was so cold that when we fell through the clouds, the water droplets felt like ice crystals on my face.

All too soon, Chris deployed the parachute. And this was perhaps the strangest part of the whole thing (notwithstanding the fact that I had just jumped out of a plane). We were just suspended in mid-air. We weren't moving at all, just dangling there like puppets with no strings attached. I couldn't stop looking down. There were my sneakers, and then way waaay below were houses and gardens and fields looking like doll's house pieces.

And we were sort of gliding through the air. Sometimes doing corkscrews. It was so peaceful and calming seeing field after field dotted with bright yellow flowers and roofs and chimneys underfoot. It was quite bizarre too, come to think about it - having a conversation in mid-air. And yet incredibly romantic. If only I wasn't strapped to a complete stranger.

The landing happened so fast. I never really realised how quickly we were descending and before I knew it, my feet were on terra firma. And I gave Chris the biggest bear hug I could seeing as he was a towering 2 foot taller than me. I was on a high the whole day and all the way back. Even thinking about it now gives me goosebumps.


So ended my charity skydive. Oh remember the children's home where Shashi and I used to teach? Precious Children's Home? Well that's where I've sent the money I raised. I'm so glad I could do something for them, even from way over here.

I can't wait for next year!!