Hey readers! We've got some great stories for you about our last week or so!
When we returned from our surf trip to San Diego in the chocolate van the house was empty. Rachael, Francois and the kids had left on a camping trip With their Church community.
We used Thursday, Friday and Saturday on surfing, a bit more surfing and just hanging around on the beaches and the house. Sunday morning - around 4 o'clock AM we woke up and left for LA National Park - the weather was rainy, and we were gonna hike 5 miles (8 km), crossing a river 7 times to get to the Bridge of Nowhere, from where we were supposed to bungee jump!
We arrived at the parking lot where the hike should begin with high expectations even though the weather was bad. Many of the people who were supposed to jump had cancelled, so our group was small - 8 persons (cancelations was not an option for us!). By the time we got to the bridge we were all soaked! It was freezing and very windy.. We began our jump school - they taught us about the cords, the jumping technics and so on; soon we were ready for the actual jumping...
We both had to do 3 jumps - the swan dive, the backwards plunge and one jump of our own choice. Kris was the first to do his jumps - suddenly there he was on the edge of the bridge ready to jump off. First the swan dive, then the backwards plunge and then he chose the elevator drop as the last jump; a backwards jump falling down with your legs first - and almost touching the bridge bouncing up again - a rush through the veins! After Kris it was Marco's turn. One jump, another jump and then the third: the classical ankle dive as you see it in the movies. Even though he slipped a bit on the last jump, it was amazing..! It just didn't look that good, but who cares.
After we had did our jumps, it felt like they had passed in a flash; we were in and out of the bungee gear before we could know it! And the cold that was killing us was replaced by pure adrenaline rushing through our bodies - with a little help from some hot Gatorade (a surprisingly good drink!). It was very much one of the coolest experiences ever! We can't wait to try it again, next time we'll do it at the world's highest bungee jump site: off a bridge in South Africa with more than a 200 m drop! We did video shoot some of the jumps, but the videos take to much space to put on the webalbum.
Then we had our 5 mile hike back to the car and drove off as soon as we got there. Coming out of the canyon, both of us almost fell asleep, so before any accidents we stopped and got some lunch and a little rest.
Back at the house we were completely exhausted and went straight to bed for a 3 hour nap. In the evening Francois, Rachael and the kids came back from their trip. We told them about our surf trip and the bungee jumping and they were happy to know we had had a great time, and glad to see that the house was in good condition.
Monday morning we had our goodbyes with Rachael and the kids and then Francois gave us a ride to the Greyhound station where the bus was going to take us to Las Vegas. Considering we had stayed at their house for almost three weeks and had a lot of fun with them it was pretty emotional saying goodbye to them! We are gonna miss the kids, Rachael and Francois and who knows; maybe the next time we'll visit them in South Africa or have the pleasure of having them stay at our place in Denmark! We nearly didn't want to leave California, but new adventures were awaiting - the never sleeping city Las Vegas, the astonishing views of Grand Canyon and the upcoming trip to Austin and New Orleans!
Stay tuned for new experiences we want to share with the world!
P.S. Check the new pics on the picasa album 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment