Day 5 - May 18th
Woke up and needed a shower to defrost. Today our final destination was Tofino. But first we had to do some grocery shopping and were taking a small side stop so some of the fools that wanted to could jump of a bridge at Nanimo. As I woke up I was a firm no starter as I am into life preservation. But 40 minutes in the back of the bus can do strange things to the mind 
(as we saw on many occasions). By the time we had pulled up I was keen to do the bungy and the ultimate swing. We got to the place and it was cool. It was a nice bridge over this beautiful river at the bottom of a gully. The height was 42 meters or I think 140 feet sounds better. I signed my life away and made my way up the bridge. I said I would go first as the screaming of people before me would not have been the most encouraging sound. In I went, I sat down and the dude wrapped a towel around my ankles and put on the strap. I tell you it did not look like any modern technology life saving device. Then he attached the rubber bands to my ankles. I tentatively walked out onto the platform holding on for grime life. Looking down at my toes shuffling towards the white line but also being careful not to focus anywhere past the toes. There I was, all I had to do was turn off the brain and jump.
3.....2......1.......BUNGY !!!!
Then gravity took over. I will never forget the speed at which the water came up to meet me. I stopped about 2-3 feet short of the water. The guts stayed in the correct position and it was a lot smoother that I expected. But the bouncing back up was the rough part, up to 7 meters short of the bridge. Then I watched everyone else jump. It gave a different perspective on the whole thing watching everyone else jump. Then we watched the video before lunch. I looked as shit scared as I actually was : )
It was time to do the Ultimate swing. They say that you pull 3 g's and hit 146 km/h when the tension is taken up. In to the harness I went. The voice did go up a bit as I was strapped in. They said it was a bit of a crunch on the old crown jewels and I had better secure myself in well. I sat down of the seat hanging over the side of the bridge. Then when they attached the wire all this weight was trying to pull me over the edge. Even though I was hooked in at the back it was really scary. 3..2..1..Swinggg. The drop was incredible. Then the slack took up on the rope. Crunch, but it was not too bad, then .75 of a second later CRUNCH, Ouch !!
that felt more than 3 g to me. They did not say anything about the second one, but there I was doing nearly 150 kays swinging like Tarzan. It was the ultimate rush. I hobbled back to dry land with a much higher voice and watched Martin and Bob swing. Again seeing it from below made me think why on earth did I just do that.
After buying a shirt and the video we piled into the van and headed for Tofino. It was a very scenic drive, high mountains, lakes and rivers. Beautiful waterfalls, but it was raining and visibility was not always the best. We had to set up the tents in the rain. We decided to get out of the rain and headed for the bar. In the bar there was a dude having his bucks night. It turned out that he lived in Dapto (a 15 minute drive from my place). Small world or what !!
Back to Canadian Parks West Page or on to Day 6.