I believe those were the exact words screamed at about 12,000ft as we literally fell out of a plane! Fortunately there was an instructor attached, and even more importantly a parachute attached to him. Yes, today was my Christmas present from Caroline, a skydive for both of us over Woollongong beach A storm was brewing over the hills for most of the day, and we were delayed a little while, but this was all good. As the little plane with a very thin plastic door (I was worried at this point as I was attached to nothing), we rose above the clouds to an amazing sunset, and a cotton wool landscape. The 5 minute warning came in from the pilot, so strapping in tight we waddled across to the open door. The sky opened out, we leaned into the freezing air and were gone, freefallling with the exhilarating realisation there was nothing to grab onto apart from harness straps! The fireball lasted about 1 minute, enough time to admire the sunset, see the other bodies hurtling toward the ground, marvel at what the air was doing to the flesh on my hand and think “so this is what it’s like to fall from a plane”! Once in the warm musty cloud, Tony opened the parachute and we were yanked up, quickly slowing down to a much more leisurely fall. Dropping out of the cloud the beach came into view and the city to the south. The descent obviously wasn’t that slow as a few corkscrew twists proved, and the ground quickly approached in the final few seconds to a gentle touch down on our bottoms. A few seconds later the whooping screams of a Caroline could be heard from above as she touched down. Apparently Caroline had done a backflip during her freefall, or so she thinks as her eyes were shut!
Thanks Caroline for a fantastic Christmas present! 🙂