Flight to Port Elizabeth -- The Road Trip Begins (11-7-2005)

Early breakfast this morning at 7am at Villa Picasso; locked and loaded, Zane transported all four of us--Lindsay, Sho, Don and me--to the airport for our 9:40am flight to Port Elizabeth. Had enough time to pickup international postage for postcards and got them off as well. Lindsay arranged our travel and we flew the "Southwest--no frills--Airline" of Africa, Kulula.com. As we stepped up the gangway to the plane, she lamented her reluctance to obtain water for the trip. The youthful male flight attendant, dressed in Kululas bright lime green shirt and baseball cap said that they do provide service even though they wear a cap. The ride was once again bumpy for most of the 1-hour flight, due to the lingering cloud cover with welcomed breaks of warm sunlight.
We picked up our rental car at the Nationwide counter. Cheers to our travel arranger as booking through a third-party agent provided us a cheaper rate, full coverage insurance, as well as a free upgrade. Our luggage fit perfectly in the boot of the Nissan Altima, with creature comforts of air conditioning and automatic transmission. Don was on the driver's side behind the right-hand steering wheel. Lindsay and Sho said in unison, "Wide Right, Tight Left" as we headed away from the airport on the left side of the road. South Africa inherited its traffic orientation from Britain, along with Australia and India. Don did quite well staying on our side of the road, only failing once when turning back onto the road from our stop at Storms River. Here, the river cut ever so deeply through the rocks for many centuries leaving 200 foot cragged cliffs on either side. Definitely a Kodak moment. When we pulled back onto the two-lane highway, a distant oncoming car flashed headlights reminding us where approaching traffic belonged--on the left.

Next stop was only about 20KM down the road was at the world's highest bungy jump. Lindsay, Sho, and Don outfitted in their yellow harnesses, secured by a custom designed system, flew along the 'flying fox' cable for 200m before reaching the center of the bridge arch. Don was the first to experience the rush. At the arch of the bridge, the professional staff tied his legs together and attached the cord just moments before he literally jumped off the edge and experienced the 216m free fall teatherd to a rubber band--mind you, it was a sizable rubber band. Sho was the next to go only hesitating for a moment when the crew began the countdown a little too quickly for her. Lindsay was the only one of the three that appeared to heed the coaching and take the leap with arms fully extended resembling a new bird in flight. I walked to the center of the bridge as their amateur photographer trying to capture their moments. Each one of our jumpers have an official certificate to commemorate the event along with a professional video and tee shirt. They learned to face adrenalin jumping off the largest bridge in Africa--the Bloukrans Bridge.




The rest of the day following the bungy jump was quite uneventful. All jumpers were exhausted and not necessarily excited. Guess I will have to experience it one day myself, just to see what all the fuss was about before vs after. We completed the days' travel securing our rooms at Bright Water B&B followed by a wonderful seafood dinner at a nice restaurant in Plettenberg Bay.