Home » Australia » My Travel Diary, part II - Skydive & WhitSundays

At the time this was great, and with hindsight it still was. It was stereotypical, I took a gap year, I went travelling, I did the standard route, I learnt a lot about myself. Don't feel you have to read it :)

My Travel Diary, part II - Skydive & WhitSundays

Max Howell
2006-02-27 10:50:13

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Wed, 12 Jul 2000, 09:35:23 GMT

Not long since my last mail, but here's the latest updates:

1. I visited the offically second best beach in the world
2. I showered with a spider that was very large.
3. I did a 12000 foot skydive.

Airlie beach has got to one of the best places in the world. Tonight I sleep for 6 pound and the dinner was included. Admittedly the hut I sleep in sleeps eight and is made of chipboard. It also is covered in graffiti such as "Welcome to the Tarantula zoo" and "the Jersey boyz say 'no muff is too tuff'", but it's a bed. The town seems to be forever sunny and bright and is full of cheap beer especially the genuine Ozzy Fosters which is much nicer than th English crap they serve. the guys at JD will be pleased to hear I can now stomach twice as much beer as b4, but I wake up every morning wishing I hadn't tried.

On the third day here I did my skydive.

The Whitsunday Islands are world famous, simply because they are fantastic. From 12000 feet they are amazing, and when you jump onto them there can't be anything better. It cost me 120 pounds and it is the best 120 I ever spent! We slowly ascended to 12000 feet, it took at least 30 minutes and luckily I was very calm, it was only when the door opened that I started to feel a little nervous but bravely I stepped out of the plane and began to wonder "I wonder when we'll jump" rather than my god that's a long way to fall. The reason I thougth this is coz it was a tandem jump and the next thing I knew we were falling.

I had my eyes shut, he acceleration was horrific, but as I had calculated with physics genius Pete Roe the night b4 I was free falling b4 3 seconds were up. Open Eyes. Spread Hands. Try to scream. Can't scream. Can't Laugh. Who Cares this is great! 12000 was as high as they would take me and I had 45 seconds of free fall. It was unlike anything I have ...