Fear is temporary, Regret is forever…

…reads the wise and profound saying on my t-shirt. “What t-shirt?” you ask. The t-shirt that I bought after I bungee jumped off the Bloukrans bridge--incidentally, the highest bungee jump in the world… (Mom and Dad, I decided to save these plans until after I jumped and was still alive.) “What?” You ask. “Are you for real? The Carol I know would never do that.” Well, I thought that too but I have photographic proof… (Oh, and by the way, there’s a very funny video that you’ll all get to see when I get home)

And it doesn’t end there…Here’s the play-by-play of our weekend on the garden route.

We took a 7 hour drive from Cape Town for the adventure weekend of a lifetime:

Friday 2pm – 9 of us leave for 6 hour drive to Wilderness, a town about 320 miles from Cape Town. Trip includes: Me, Stephanie, Malory, Heidi, Danielle, Kaitlin, Alana, and Amy

Friday 9pm – Check into the African Sun Hotel

Friday 9:30pm – The ladies hit the bar

Friday 9:31pm – Stephanie, my roommate at home and for the night leaves the bar because she thinks she might be sick (the CCS stomach flu)

Friday 11pm – Carol walks into her room and Stephanie is not in good shape. But we do have a very comfy King Size Bed

Saturday 12am, 2am, 4am – Carol awakes to the sweet sounds of Stephanie in the bathroom

Saturday 7am: Stephanie’s made it to bed for 45 minutes. We need to get up. And she’s determined to bungee…And she does (She’s my hero)

Saturday 7:01 am – Carol is losing her mind. She doesn’t like heights, she thinks it’s silly to purposely throw yourself a bridge unless…
A – It’s already falling and you don’t have any alternative but to jump
B – Someone’s about to shoot you and your only choice at the time to get out of the way of the bullet is to jump
C – You actually want to kill yourself

Saturday 8am – We’re on the road heading for the Bloukrans Bridge in Tsitsikamma (it’s in the Eastern Cape)

Saturday 8:01 – 9:59pm – I’m feeling vomitous

Saturday 10am – Oh Christ! We’re here.

Saturday 10:01-12:45—sheer torture. A 2 hour and 45 minute wait including getting suited up and having to be the 3rd to last to jump. They do the jumping in weight order. In this case it was NOT awesome to be the 3rd lightest…

12:46pm – I’m doing a weird jig (wait ‘til you see the video) before I’m about to jump. I am not sure if it was to keep me warm (it was freezing on the bridge), to keep me from thinking about the jump, or to keep me from passing out

12:48 – 5-4-3-2-1 JUMP!

12:49 – This is the coolest thing (hanging upside down)

12:50pm – Someone please get me down. Now!

12:52pm – Pulled up…and safely on top of the bridge again. It was awesome! (but I NEVER need to do it again…unless someone decides to build a higher bridge that people can jump from)

After bungee….a frenzy of oh my gods and can’t believe its. 7 of us (Me, Malory, Steph, Heidi, Danielle, Haley, Kaitlin) jumped and there are no words for how fun, scary, crazy and silly it was.

2pm – 5pm - We hit the canopy tours---essentially 10 zip lines from the top of trees 200 meters high. For a girl who HATES heights, it was a trying day. Of course, my fear makes me a total spaz. Zip lining is no problem…I feel very safe on the actual line. Standing on the platform 200 meters up from the ground waiting for 8 other people to get on to the platform…not cool.

9pm - We get to the hotel in Outsdhoorn and passed out… (another 2 hour drive)

Sunday 7am – another early wake up call

Sunday 7am – 9am – Still buzzing about jumping off of the world’s highest bungee jump (still am buzzing if I’m honest)

9:15am – Arrive at Cango Caves for Caving Adventure Tour…a real tour through the caves with spaces no more than 27 centimeters and spaces called “the chimney”, “the coffin”, “the letterbox”

9:30 – 11am – Take the most amazing tour through these caves and fit through spaces that you never, ever thought you’d get through…

…On top of that, you need some upper body strength to pull yourself up through crevices that you have no room to maneuver in

11am—Take off for ostrich riding. Ostrich riding you say? Sounds awkward, dirty, and uncomfortable…it was all those things and I have some video to prove it....hilarious video to come--our wireless connection is not cooperating right now.

12pm – Leave ostrich riding and head to Kango Wildlife reserve. As you all know, I’m a HUGE animal lover (that’s sarcasm)…so seeing a white tiger and pygme hippo weren’t all that exciting for yours truly

2pm – on the road home (another 5 hour drive)

7pm – Drop Danielle off at the airport. It’s very sad…she and Steph are two of my favorites in Africa.

7:30pm – Put on my game face to face a whole new set of “the Vicki’s” (sorry Vic). 14 new volunteers have joined us and I fear it may be too much for me to take…

In conclusion, it was an amazing and fantastic weekend.

Only 2 weeks left here…I am equal parts sad and happy about that. Definitely missing the creature comforts and of course all of you. But I think this is a once in a lifetime experience and in that way, I never want it to end…

Hope you are all well!

Love,C