Freefall !!

  Mission Beach, Queensland, Australia
Thursday, August 28, 2008

I expected to feel petrified to the spot, sitting in the open doorway of a plane, 14000 feet above the North Queensland coast. But my tandem skydive instructor, to whom I was firmly strapped, fell forward before I had time to process the situation, and with eyes wide behind their goggles and a short, sharp gasp, I was tumbling over and over midair and hurtling towards the cloud for 60 seconds of freefall.

A sack of espresso beans worth of adrenaline was pumping through my body when this reality hit me although, with such huge distance between myself and the ground, the only real indicator that I was falling was the force and eerie sound of cold air whooshing up against me, and the sensation of my popping ears. With the initial shock over, I grinned with the insanity of what I was doing and the sheer exhilaration of falling through the air. To the left of the cloud cover I could see the waters of the Great Barrier Reef sparkling in the distance and

falling through the cloud

then suddenly, as we passed through the cloud, I was jerked upwards by the opening parachute, beginning the few minutes of floating over the coastline towards our sandy landing spot below. The shore stretched for miles on either side of the 14 kilometres of Mission Beach, fringed with shiny green palms, while hilly green islands reared out out the water, their curved yellow beaches seemingly added as an artistic afterthought.

Coming in to land

safely on my feet again!

We spun wildly for a dizzying few seconds as my instructor steered us in, and then, all too soon, I was back on land, bum wedging firmly in the damp sand as we stopped, while my personal cameraman, aka John, snapped the accompanying shots. And then I needed a good sit down, followed by a snooze in the car north to Cairns to recover! An expensive few minutes, but wow, what a thrill!


I am now sitting outside the tent at a campsite in Cairns, marveling at the changes in geography through which we have driven in the past weeks: after skiing in fresh snow, we left a bright but cold Melbourne and our environment

John & Mick showing how far we've driven!

grew gradually warmer as we headed north, with the last couple of days passing sugar cane and banana plantations as we entered the more humid tropical north with its lush foliage and vivid flowers. The owner of a coffee shop at Mission Beach told us they have had four months of bad weather, making it their worst season in years, which explains why the skies have been grey and the waters churned in the past few days, most unlike the idyllic pictures in the brochures! It is the best time of year to be here but it seems it's just not a great year climate-wise. However, there's a blue sky above me as I type, so hopefully our ventures into the forests north and the seas east will prove fruitful...