Today most people are going to write about going to Robben Island so I’ll leave that up to them. I, on the other hand, am going to write about abseiling off of Table Mountain. When I woke up this morning I had no idea I would be repelling off of the highest commercial abseil in the world in just a few hours, but before we got on the bus to head to the Robben Island ferry, Dustin said to make sure I was wearing proper abseiling clothing. Skinny jeans and Toms were probably not the most suitable attire for repelling off a cliff so I ran upstairs and changed to something a little more comfortable (and safe).
When the ferry docked back at the Water Front after our day at Robben Island, a group of ten of us rushed to the adventure van. First we had to drop off eight paragliders at Lion’s Head, but then the only other abseiler, Anna White, and I were dropped off at the cable car to head up Table Mountain. We got off 1,084.6 meters later at the top of the mountain and walked right up to the abseiling guy. “Alright here’s your gear, off you go. Cheers!” the guide said and handed us our harnesses and helmets. We just stood there, thinking to ourselves “Oh crap. What did we get ourselves into??” But then he starting laughing launched into a short, but informative, lesson on abseiling. The guides were really helpful, nice, and obviously liked to joke around so we weren’t getting too nervous as we prepared for our fall.
Suddenly, they were telling us to position our bodies on the left side of the rope, grab the clip with our left hand, the trailing rope with our right, and walk backwards towards the 112 meter drop. I kept lowering the top part of my body, without moving my feet so when it got to the point where my legs were so bent that my butt was below my feet, my guide said “You know you’re going to have to move your feet sometime.” So I stated climbing down. It was not near as bad as I thought it was going to be. Honestly, they were doing most of the work up top, lowering us down, but we still had to do the whole climbing part. I know most people wouldn’t look down, but if I kept my eyes on the rock in front of me, I would have missed the awesome views of the mountain and Camps Bay. Suddenly I feet started to feel not as sturdy and when I looked directly below I realized the rock just stopped. I now knew what the guide meant when he told us “Oh and there’s a little surprise waiting for you at the end.” This “little surprise” was a 60ish meter free fall to the bottom. “Well, here goes,” I told myself and pushed off with my feet. It was one of the coolest feelings I have ever experienced (and not to mention one of the most awesome views I have ever seen), as I descended to the bottom. I guess looking back on abseiling after bungee jumping, will seem like child’s play but if anything it was a great warm up.
Carey McKay
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