Exhilaration, adrenaline and excitement. That’s what went through my body as I jumped from a moving plane 10 000 feet above the ground. And you can too. Skydiving over the West Coast with Mother City SkyDiving offers views that stretch from the Cederberg, Table Mountain and Robben Island through to Cape Point.
The 25-minute flight up was so scenic I lost myself in the lusciously green patches of farm fields that make up Malmesbury, and the view stretching from the Cederberg, Table Mountain and Robben Island through to Cape Point.
Photo supplied by Mother City SkyDiving.
While I was enjoying the spectacle, Fred Potgieter strapped himself even closer to me – I was happy that I wasn’t going down alone. Suddenly the door opened and I could hear the sound of the heavy wind. Jean-Jacques Wallis leaped out first and held onto the wing of the plane, waiting for me to jump so he could capture the moment. It happened so fast.
“Get your feet out,” said Fred over the roaring wind. All I wanted to say was, “You mean I should physically put both my feet outside of an aeroplane in the sky?” – except there was no time to back out of what I had soberly signed up for. I reluctantly put out one leg. “Let the other leg out,” he shouted.
At this point, I had to do exactly as I was told. So I put my other leg out into the sky, and we dived. We were spinning at first as if falling into a massive green patchwork of Malmesbury farms with the ground seemingly moving closer to our faces.
Photo supplied by Mother City SkyDiving.
Soaring through the wind, I felt like Superman, which to be honest, was the real reason I’ve always wanted to skydive. Then the parachute opened and there was silence. We were going down much slower now.
It was only when the wind and speed slowed that I could utter words, and I had my first moment to scream with pure excitement and joy. With the parachute open and knowing for sure that I was not going to die (at least not from this jump), I looked around and tried to take in the moment. It was all too good. And so I got back to screaming, “This is sooooooo good!”
Photo supplied by Mother City SkyDiving.
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Mother City SkyDiving is based in Malmesbury, it is an hour’s drive from Cape Town. Costs are R2 850 per person for a tandem skydive, plus R800 – R1140 for stills or a video of your jump. Transfers from the city can be arranged for R500 per person return.
Contact: 0793372443, mothercityskydiving.co.za.
• The Parachute Association of SA lists dropzones and operators around the country on its website para.co.za
