Mission Beach is known for being one of the longest beaches in Australia. It also is a very popular site for skydiving as you are able to land on the beach. This is where I plucked up enough courage to sign myself on. Before i could even think about what i'd just signed up for there was a car outside waiting to take a small group of us to the airport. I gave my camera to jack and told him to film me landing as i wasn't going to by the video.

On the half an hour ride to the plane we got swamped with papers from all directions saying things like "In the case of death". I just closed my eyes and signed my life away. Talking to one jump instructor in the car i found out he'd done thousands of jumps which kinda put me at ease, right until i asked how many mine had done and he replied with 3! Thank God he was being sarcastic.

On arrival at the small runway we quickly got kitted up in harnesses and told to simulate leaving the plane on the ground. You start off crossing you arms and tilting your head back then as soon as soon as you take the plunge out the plane you do a banana shape and put your arms out to the side. We all got crammed into a small plane and harnessed to our instructors. The view on the way up was wonderful with views of the Barrier reef, several small islands and the Rainforest / Mountains in the distance. What I didn't know was the view was going to be so much better on the way down. It was a perfect day for it with no clouds and miles and miles on visibility. After about 15mins we had reached the jumping altitude of 14,000 feet! The side door opened and we were hit with the monsterous roar of the wind. One Japanese girl panicked and started screaming saying she wanted to go down. Her instructor simply said we are going down and in the blink of an eye they were on the edge then gone! For a split second you could hear the scream dying away to nothingness.

I was the last to jump as i'd boarded first. We shuffled to the edge of the aircraft, then the instructor sat on the side with me attached to the front of him. At this point i was out the aircraft with my legs dangling limply. My instructor told me to took my legs under the plane, which is actually quite difficult as they were being pounded by the wind. I took up the head back arms crossed position and then fell. I remember seeing the plane vanish from sight in less than a second as we rolled and tumbled trying to get balance. At that point i didn't know which way was up and which way was down but eventually after a few seconds we stabalised. I was now falling at terminal velocity which is equivalent to 200kph (124mph) or 54 metres a second!

I had around a 60 second freefall which was just full with a deafening roar, cheeks like jelly and astonishing views as we span around. As we got closer to the ground the speed in which we were travelling became apparant as the ground grew 10 times bigger each second. All of a sudden I hear a hissing noise and come to a jarring stop as the parachute is deployed.

It then takes about 10 minutes of circling to reach the ground. The harness that i had one made it fell like i was being wedgied for all the time, but thats only a small price to pay for the views which you could now take in. After a couple of minutes my instructor offered for me to take the reins and control the chute. I gripped each cord and pushed up or down sending us into high speed corkscrews for a few seconds before doing it in the other direction. These were great fun to do but soon made me feel very ill. As I descended on the beach i gave the controls back and let him do the hard part. We swooped really close to trees and then lined up the beach. I thought we were too high and too fast to land at that moment but unexpectadly we took a steep dive to the beach.

We hadn't been told anything about how to land and my automatic instinct was to put my legs down and run. Unfortunately we were going way too fast and my legs disapeared behind me. I heard the instructor shout to put my legs up and then glided my safely to a stop. I SURVIVED!

I found out then that i was one of the first to land as we had been doing the high speed corkscrews which get you down quicker. A few seconds later all you could hear was the Japanese girl screaming and then she appeared from behind some trees and landed safely. I think she had screamed the whole way down without breathing.

Later that day the clouds came in and the heavens opened so we went for a swim in the pool. We met some English guys here that taught us how to play gladiator games on the log over the pool. This involved fighting each other with them floats until one person fell off the log into the pool, and having everyone stand on the log while someone kicks a footy at you.

In the evening i went to play a drinking game with them called the ring of fire. It involves whoever picks the last king has to down a pint of a mixture of everyone else's drinks. Unfortunately i got it and had the worst tasting pint of my life filled with vodka, beer and goon (cheap wine made with parts of fish that you can buy 4litres of for $5!)

The next morning i decided to go for a run to clear my head. I set off along the beach determined to get to the end. Now they don't call it one of Australia's longest beaches for nothing. I ran for miles and miles and took about 2 hours to reach the end of the beach, but i made it! I then realised i had to run back. A few hours later i finally crawled back and collapsed.

We left Mission beach the next day to go to Airlie Beach, the starting location of the Whitsundays Sailing Tours, in much need of a rest.