Cairns

After just one night in Cairns, I suddenly found myself going on yet another camping trip. By now I had kind of had enough of camping, but I wanted to stay with my current group and join them for Saturday's sky dive. The three day journey took us to the beaches and rainforests around Cape Tribulation and Daintree. While most of the group seemed to have a good time, I didn't particularly enjoy it. Skydiving nerves lingered in the back of my mind, I woke up one morning having slept very awkwardly on my shoulder, and the scenery and trekking was very sub-standard compared to previous places on my journey. I was glad to return to Cairns on Friday.

Friday evening, however, was nerve-wracking for all of us. We would wake up in the morning knowing we would soon drop from the sky from 14,000 feet. I didn't actually believe I would enjoy it - I can't even stand rollercoaster dips of a few seconds, so how could I bare a 60 second drop? I was also fearful of losing my stomach the entire way down, and having trouble breathing.

My nerves this morning still persisted, but I wasn't the only one. However, a conversation with Jeff, our room mate from our first night in Cairns, reassured me that my fears would not be a problem. This put me in a much more positive mood.

The morning passed very quickly after this. Before we knew it we were on a bus travelling to the plane. Any fears we had of experiencing a fatal sky dive were not particularly helped by our professional diving partners joining in to Michael Jackson's 'Bad' on the bus radio with the lyrics "I'm dead! I'm dead!". (Jackson passed away the previous morning).

By now, however, I was more positive about the dive than ever. I felt ready. As we boarded the tiny yellow plane and ascended to the sky, I actually didn't feel scared. At no point did I fear death or injury - just possibly 60 seconds of falling hell before the soothing parachute glided us home. I actually felt excited, albeit in a nervous way.

When the door of the plane opened, parachuters and their trained partners began to pour out of the plane at a very speedy rate. I watched Roel spin out of sight, before I too was pushed to the open door. I'd seen this moment on TV many times before - it was a moment that had filled me with dread - but at that exact moment, I felt no fear. Looking at ground 14,000 feet below my dangling feet seemed very normal. In fact I almost felt calm - the ground was so far away that surely nothing could go wrong, for the next minute at least.

And then I was spinning. It took me a couple of seconds to remind myself that I needed to tuck my legs back before my partner would tap me on the shoulder to say it was time to relax our posture. I tucked in my legs ... and I felt a tap ... and then we floated. This was the most surprising part of the jump ... it doesn't feel like you are falling, but rather, you are floating. The ground was so far away that I didn't notice it getting closer. It felt like floating in a bubble, albeit with a very strong and cold fan flapping my face about. I didn't lose my stomach for a moment.

In addition to savouring the surreal experience of free-fall, I did experience some minor breathing difficulty. Deep breaths seemed impossible, but at no point did I feel unsafe.

After what seemed like 20 seconds, we jolted slightly. A moment later, I realised that the parachute had opened - I couldn't believe that the 60 seconds was up. The part of the jump which I dreaded was over, and it had been a sensation. Now it was time to enjoy the glide down to earth ... but something else unexpected happened; I was totally out of breath.

While falling, the minor breathing troubles were pushed to the back of my mind, but now we had slowed down, I realised I felt exhausted, nauseous and breathless. Unfortunately I failed to properly take in the parachuting section of the jump; I tried to just totally relax and feel okay again, but we slid to a halt on the grass before I fully recovered. To my surprise, no-one else had experienced this problem. Once my harness was taken off, I took a very deep breath. I wonder now if it had actually been too tight. Whatever the issue was, I had no regrets. The sky jump was spectacular, and I recommend it to all.

The rest of today will be spent finding my feet again. I don't actually know what's happening next. I may hang around and do some white water rafting with my friends, or maybe Ill now head south. Time will tell.