The Big Swing!!!

We've just come back from a super trip. We went to Graskop which has some amazingly beautiful scenery including the 3 rondavels, many waterfalls, huge potholes, Blyth River Canyon which is the 3rd largest in the world and it was here that the scariest event in our short lives happened - THE BIG SWING.

This is the world's largest free fall swing, which basically means you are in a full body harness attached to a rope then you throw yourself off a platform, free fall 70 metres then go into a swing the total height is 120 metres (19 storeys!). They let you have a free zip wire across the canyon first, seems nice, but you get to see exactly how far there is to fall and how rocky the bottom is.

We made our tour guide, Emille, go first and he had no fear (or no choice). Then our Icelandic friends Anita and Klemmi went tandem, Klemmi also has no fear and as Anita was attached to him she had no choice! Unfortunately it wasn't so simple for us and after around 5 mintues of us chickening out, the owner of the swing came down onto the platform and held my harness to 'reassure' me, but pushed us over backwards.

I can honestly say I have never been so scared, never screamed like that or heard Kate scream like that and I hope I never will. The feeling of falling is like nothing else and is so unnatural that your body goes into shock. The actual swing was great, but by then we were both in tears, mainly relief but part anger for being pushed over. I'm so glad I've done it but that's definitely a once in a lifetime experience for me! We got a certificate and a free beer which helped but nothing comes close to the feeling after you come to the realisation of what you've just done.

Back to reality now, up with the babies at 7 am huzzah!

Rx