The bungee

After a spot of lunch we make our way back to the accommodation as we have Dave’s bungee jump booked for 3pm. We sit around in the bright sunshine, share a beer or 3 and I update the blog. Dave Barlow’s boss has turned up and he is, confusingly, called Dave too, and his surname begins with a B, so that makes 3 Dave B’s we have. Neil, one of Dave’s friends turns up too. Eventually we jump into the vehicles and head west into the sun, along the Garden Route and eventually the Bloukrans Bridge appears and we turn off the N2 into the car park.


The place is heaving with people, mostly Dutch who are making their way to Cape Town and English going in the opposite direction heading to Port Elizabeth. Although the sun is high in the sky and without a single cloud it’s not very warm. We head for the bar and viewing area that has an open balcony withy great views of the bridge, the valley below and the jumping area. It also has a very large screen with live pictures beamed from the jumping platform, just so you can see the final moments of people being hooked up and shuffling to the edge before diving headfirst into the chasm below. We wait for Dave to have his briefing. It’s starting to get cold and we have nothing to do but wait. We wait for Dave to put his harness on, and still we have nothing to do. We wait for Dave to be called for his jump and by now we sit and watch the Spanish play and laugh at Ronaldo who’s just a sulky big boy at best. We wait for Dave to walk out to the platform and the sun is going down and getting colder. He appears on the platform amongst a lot of orange, what is it about the Dutch, do they have such a limited wardrobe that everything has to be that horrible shade? Can you imagine them getting dressed in the morning, hmm, shall I wear my orange T shirt or my orange fleece, or better still my orange boiler suit? I digress. They are filling the bar now as everybody doing the jump is coloured orange and we see Dave in the background waiting his turn. So we wait. One by one an orange lemming throws itself off the edge of the platform, falls for a very long 6 seconds and then repeatedly bounces up and down until rescued by some very brave soul, who abseils down and helps each jumper back onto the ledge. Each jumper gets a very loud cheer from the orange melee, men and women included. We wait for Dave to take his turn, and we secretly start filming the large TV pictures, much against the rules of the establishment. It’s now down to the last 3 or 4 and still we wait, now very cold, impatient and thoroughly bored, but I’m sure Dave will lift our spirits. Eventually Dave appears on camera, he looks very nervous, and the Dutch start cheering for themselves as though it’s a Holland v England International. Dave Bev joins in, much to my annoyance as I keep saying=g he’s not going to do it. He shuffles to the edge, looks down the 216 metres to the valley bottom and turns away. No hesitation, just one look and a quick no. The Dutch erupt into fits of laughter and we depart thoroughly embarrassed, thanks Dave!

We wait in the batmobile for his return, we’ve wasted a complete afternoon getting cold and waiting for him to jump. He even, to his embarrassment, bought one of those t shirts that proclaim he’s jumped off the highest bungee in the world. Doh! As a bit of kidology we pretend to have been in the batmobile all afternoon and don’t know if he’s been successful or not, but Dave decides not to speak to us. We set off and I head for the petrol station to fill up for the morning and get money out of the ATM. Nothing is said from either side, I can just hear chicken noises coming from the back of the bus which I find hilarious but Dave still doesn’t speak. We get showered, changed, and head for dinner, back to our previous evenings venue in a private room at the local hotel, log fire burns away, the telly shows the football and they have set out the table with England flags, messages of ‘Welcome to the England Fans’ written out and placed on the table. A very nice touch. We enjoy another glorious meal with lots of red wine, but Dave decides to head to bed again without a word. Ok if he can keep it up so can we. Tiredness kicks in, we have another drive in the morning so we head for bed, bring on Port Elizabeth.