Right, well hi guys and welcome to the next addition of the Grant and Linz's big adventure. Now this blog is just gonna be about one thing and one thing only. The craziest, maddest, stupidest thing we have both ever done and the activity in mention is a skydive, man my hands are sweating at the thought of recounting this!

So since we have come away we have always said that we were gonna do one and to be honest I think both of us never really gave it a second thought, me especially. Well half way through our banana factory fun Linz said the words I had kinda been dreading "when we gonna book this skydive then?". After about 3 days of ignoring, changing the subject and running away from her every time the subject came up, we eventually booked it for Sunday April the 1st. Kinney our landlady who booked it, took great pleasure in laughing about the fact it was on April fools day, thanks love! Now it was all booked, it was agreed that we weren't allowed to talk about it until the day, otherwise I may have stressed myself out so much I could have joined the nut house!

So the day arrived and we headed down to Mission Beach waving goodbye Innisfail. When we arrived we checked into our Hostel and then just chilled waiting to be picked up at 1 for the dreaded event. When the bus arrived we jumped on and this was the start of my panic as the guys we were jumping with weren’t the most sociable as they were all sleeping off a big night out..... and I was putting my life in these guys hands!! After arriving at the airfield we had to go to the office to sign the documents etc and this is where it all unraveled. After suddenly realizing within the hour I would be jumping out of a plane I suddenly went into panic mode and subsequently told Linz I couldn't go through with it. The whole thought of jumping out of plane with nothing attached to me and hurtling towards the earth freaked me out big time. I just sat there and couldn't bring myself to sign the peppers or hardly speak. The guys in the place proceeded to encourage me saying all the usual stuff about it being the best thing I would ever do and how it really isn't that bad?!?!?!?!? So after about ten minutes I don't know why or even how but I eventually started filling out the papers and to Linz's relief she wasn't going to be going through this alone. Before the jump we had to a practice a couple of things about what we should do when we leave the plane and how we should land. Now in my completely panic stricken state I could even do these. Now this is where the guy I was doing the tandem jump with started to worry and kept asking me if I still wanted to go through with it, and as i couldn't even speak he didn't get a negative response so there it was I was jumping out of a plane.

The plane we went up in was about the size of large tin of beans and with ten of us packed into the back we took off. It had been decided that I would go last as that meant if I was pulling out then I wouldn't hold anyone up. Linz was second in line and as the plane jetted off she looked as if she was in some manicure parlor all relaxed and chatting away about the latest celebrity gossip, where as I was starring at the floor bricking it! The scenery was amazing and once we got above the clouds it was a breathtaking view of pure blue sky and white clouds below. Once we hit our jump out height of 14,000 feet the door open and people started popping out. As Linz shuffled down the plane the last words I heard her mumbling were F, F, F, F...... and then she was gone, the next time we would see each other was on the beach. As each couple went out the time seeming to pass as complete blur and then all of a sudden it was my turn. OMG as I am writing this my heart is beating so fast and I am proper nervous recounting the experience. As we edged closer to the door I could barely move and wasn’t able to open my eyes. The last thing I said to the guy was just push me out and then he did....

Its an absolute crazy feeling as all of a sudden you are buffeted by air and tossed every which way. My arms and legs were flailing all over the place and I was totally disorientated. The guy on my back was trying to get me under control and as you can see from video I whacked the camera a couple of times in my panic. Once I got my composure I was able to take it all in, as I hurtled through clouds towards the ground. We were kinda unlucky as the weather wasn't the greatest and there were lots of clouds but they were an experience in themselves. As you flew through them they kinda sting your face as if you had been hit by a really powerful sprinkler system. So after falling for about 60 seconds and actually enjoying it we were hit by a big jolt as our chute opened and there it was, we were kinda safe, well that’s how I looked at it. As we sailed through the cloud it got pretty dark and it was so bizarre thinking that there I was inside a rain cloud, now you can't get much closer to geography than that eh! We eventually came out of the cloud and below was an amazing view of mission beach with my feet dangling in the way! As we touched down I was so relieved to actually be on sand and that I had gone through with it, but also I was sort off disappointed as I was really enjoying it. A real mixed bag of feelings, and it all just left me in owe of what i had just done and for a few seconds I just lay there on the sand looking up at the sky.

Now even though Linz had left before me she still hadn't landed so I looked out for her and watched her land down the beach. Her experience was very similar to mine as she had gone through clouds and then sailed down over mission beach. She actually got through the clouds quicker than me and so got to see the scenery for longer. However the only draw back was that about half way through she had started to feel very ill and thought she was gonna be sick while up in the air. She was able to hold but only until we got back to the hostel and there she got to see her lunch again.

So there we go we are both officially skydivers and we have got a license if we want to do it again within the next 3 months (yeah right). We both have spent the last few days in a bit of daze and occasionally turning to each other and saying "we jumped out of a plane". Its something we will never forget and defiantly one of the best things we have done. We are in the process of trying to put the DVD on this site, so watch this space and hopefully it will be on there soon. If not we may try Youtube, we'll let you know.

COME ON WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Grant