i had 36 hours of the 4th of july to celebrate this weekend, so i made sure they all counted (part 3)

*Why live your life on the edge when you could ump off?*

In the weeks leading up to our weekend in Cairns I'd been toying with the idea of bungee jumping. My thought process flip flopped between "It would be pretty cool to do it, and to be able to say I had bungee jumped in the middle of an Australian rain forest." and "Holy effing crap absolutely NO way in hell. Just thinking about it makes me want to hurl." (And by hurl, I don't mean throwing myself off a ledge 50 meters (164 feet for all you folks playing at home) attached to a glorified rubber band.) Just the thought of it made me nauseous. So, after thinking it over for a while, I gave my final answer of a firm no.

Then, still on a diver's high and mid-devouring an entire pizza, I spontaneously said "sign me up, Rachel, let's do it."

And that was that. Rachel and I were officially signed up for a tandem bungee jump for the following afternoon.

At that point, it didn't feel real. In fact, it didn't feel real until 3 o'clock the next day when the shuttle picked us up. But even then, I still couldn't comprehend the idea that I had signed up for this.

After a lot of waiting, the time had finally come, and walking up the stairs felt like a dream or an outer body experience or something. Either way, I was shaking like a leaf. 

Finally, after a 40 minute wait, it was finally time for Rachel and I to take the literal leap of faith. All geared up and gripping onto each other for dear life we shuffled our way out to the edge of the platform, with me cursing and questioning my life choices the entire way.

I was instructed to let go of the railing (I reluctantly agreed) and we were told to jump on the count of 5. 

"1...2...3...4...5" 

Frozen in place from pure fear, I didn't even realize that he had reached 5. But after about 2 seconds, Rachel took the first step off the platform, and down we went. 

After a split second of "Holy crap this is it, this is where it all ends" as I watched the ground rush up to greet me, and then willing my eyes open, and then a dunk in the lake at the bottom, it quickly became the most amazing thing I have ever done. I felt weightless and giddy, and after landing at the bottom, I couldn't stop laughing. 

I felt invincible and proud of myself for doing something that scared the socks off of me. 

And after leaping off of one thing, why not swing through the rain forest on the world's fastest swing???

Harnessed in with Rachel and our tour guide Erin, we flew through the rain forest at top speed as it was getting dark, offering us beautiful views of the stars and the coast (and horrendously hideous pictures too, shown below for your viewing pleasure).

Being scared out of your mind for 3 hours really takes a lot out of you, so we all made our way back to our rooms and had the best night's sleep that we've had in a long while. 

Moral of the story: if you want a solid night's sleep, leap off of stuff and scream in pure fright so loud your throat hurts, because it knocks you right out.

Cheers
Katie