And if your friend jumps off a bridge, do you also jump?

3... 2... 1... bungee!

The moment those words were said and I jumped off the Bloukrans Bridge was possibly the scariest moment in my life.

I decided this year to go bungee jumping as it was one of those things people always say has to be on your bucket list. After much planning, I finally went the day after my 21st birthday. That wasn’t the best idea because the night of my birthday I went out and had a considerable amount to drink (as one does when one celebrates a birthday at Rhodes). The morning of the jump, I felt sick. No prizes for guessing why. We set off at 6am and after having no sleep at all I felt like death. I wasn’t at all scared of jumping off Bloukrans, despite the fact that it is the largest bridge in Africa and the highest commercial bridge bungee in the world. My biggest fear was that while soaring through the air I would rather spectacularly throw up (yes, you really needed to imagine that).

We arrived an hour early and were given the option to jump immediately. What the hell, I thought, we may as well. To get to the middle of the bridge to jump, we had to walk the length of half the bridge on a walkway that allowed you to see below. At this point I started feeling dizzy and had to keep telling myself to not look down. But I never listen to anything, not even myself, and so I continuously looked down as I walked and proceeded to scare the shit out of myself.

After what felt like the longest, most torturous walk, we reached the middle of the bridge where we were briefed on the jump. Out of the group of six, I was the second person to jump. Despite the huge smile on my face, I was at this point rather nervous. While being strapped to the harness I asked a million questions, all of which were rather embarrassingly caught on video. “Are you sure this is safe? Can this rope be broken? What happens if the part tied around my ankle slips off?” Of course I knew this wouldn’t be allowed if it wasn’t safe, but I had watched many videos of failed bungee jumps beforehand to get the excitement flowing and now they were coming back to me.

Finally, I was taken to the edge of the bridge to jump and I finally got a glimpse of the view down. Holy mother of beans, it was the scariest sight. I kept saying no, I can't do this, but at that point it was too late to back out.

Before I knew it they had counted down and I jumped. For the first few seconds I completely let go and screamed. With my long black hair trailing behind me and my screams echoing in the distance, I must have resembled a banshee.

I cannot describe the thrill and the complete ecstasy of that jump. I felt incredibly free. It was so good to let go and know that despite the fear and the appearance of danger I was still safe. And the best part of it all? I didn’t throw up.

"Fear is temporary. Regret is forever"

Most moments with Darsha are crazy but this has to be the best of them all.

Knysna

When a long weekend arrives, one cannot simply waste it working. And so with this in my mind I took a trip to Knysna this past weekend with two of my friends from university. I can now tick off 'go on a road trip' from my anti-bucket list.

Knysna is a stunning town in South Africa and it is conveniently close to where I study. The weekend began with a surprise party for Shivani's 21st at Tapas, and ended with a trip to the Garden Route Wolf Sanctuary where actual wolves roamed (this made me very happy!) In between, we squeezed in as much of the pretty sights of Knysna as we could, most of which involved water, whether it was the Knysna Heads, two cliffs facing each other at the entrance to the lagoon (seen in the photo above) or Leisure Isle or Thesen Island or the Red Bridge overlooking the Knysna River.

The beautiful birthday girl

Kelina and Shivani after a few cocktails

Birthday shots!

Shiv and I at the Knysna Heads viewpoint

Overlooking Leisure Isle

Missioning to find the prettiest shells

The Knysna Waterfront

Some of the boats lined up

Adding popcorn to my coffee ice-cream was a genius idea

The Red Bridge, an out of use iron bridge overlooking the Knysna river

They're actually quite normal, I promise

Admiring the sunset at the Red Bridge

One of the wolves at the sanctuary

Adventures at Addo

Yesterday I got the chance to play tourist in my own country when Kel, Ange, Cath and I went on a mini road-trip to Addo, an elephant park just outside the town that I live in. We planned a day of no studying, no work, no distractions; just friends, food, fun times and the beautiful outdoors.

Kelina, Angela, Carissa, Catherine: forget duck faces, here are our roaring lion faces!

We spent the day driving around ticking animals off our check list as we spotted them. One of the biggest misconceptions about South Africa is that lions and elephants roam around freely and that we keep them as pets. This is obviously far from reality and so it was exciting for me to have these animals so close. I particularly enjoyed being about 2m away from this elephant's bum as we drove past.

On numerous occasions, Kel would point to something excitedly and we would all crane our necks to see what it was. Much laughter ensued as every spotting of Kel's turned out to be a false alarm as she spotted a log, a stone, some bricks, a heap of sand and a leaf. Time for new glasses perhaps?

At this point, Kel is most likely pointing at a tree which she thinks is a giraffe.

No sightings of lions and leopards unfortunately, but lots of elephants, zebras, warthogs, kudu, dung beetles (and LOTS of dung), mongoose, a Blue Crane (our national bird), ostriches, and a few other birds and animals. At times it felt like we were viewing a typical scene from a movie set in Africa, especially with the zebras running around and the warthogs hanging around a waterhole. There were many lone elephants walking around, but seeing an entire herd walking together was quite a magical moment.

We stopped at a few picnic spots throughout the park to take in the amazing views of the place. My love for the beauty of SA was reaffirmed, as well as the knowledge that I have some pretty damn awesome friends!