Adventure Outfitters
Another day, another adventure. This day we went ziplining. What's that, you ask? Read on...
So we began by going to the adventure outfitters...
Adventure Outfitters
(Yes, that's my Red Dirt shirt Terry's wearing...)
...and got on the van to the adventure location. While the driver tried to get the van out of the mud...
Stuck In The Mud
...we walked down a trail...
Trail To Adventure
...to a wooden platform built about halfway up a cliff wall...
The Platform
...beside a waterfall.
Waterfall
Anchored securely (WE HOPE) to a large banyan tree was a cable, which stretched across the river at the base of the cliff, and was anchored to a mango tree on the other side. The cable was not stretched taut, so it hung down in the middle.
The Cable
Each of us then put on a harness, made of a webbing material, similar to what seat belts are made of, but thicker and heavier. In the center of the harness, at chest level, was a metal ring.
Terry In Harness
Intrepid Adventurers Again
So here's the deal. After you get all trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey, the guide takes a tether, made of the same material as the harness. At one end of the tether is a metal clip, which he clips to the ring at your chest. At the other end of the tether is a contraption with two wheels, which he hooks over the cable. You then step to the edge of the platform and...........
*jump off.*
And then you go ZIPping across the river, until you almost but not quite bang into the mango tree, and then you go ZIPping back the way you came, and then ZIP, ZIP, ZIP, ZIP, ZIP, back and forth, until you come to a stop at the low point of the cable, which is right over the landing platform on the far side of the river. Another guide then brings a ladder under you, and you climb down.
All together, now - IS HE KIDDING????
No, it was all too real.
Mind you, this adventure was never even mentioned in the guidebook. But Ron and Mindy told Terry about it, and as soon as she heard about it, she wanted to do it. (My wife is either fearless or has a suicidal streak. When I first met her, she was into skydiving. On our wall, we have a picture of her in midair, with her parachute just starting to open... but I digress.)
Anyway, I agreed, with some trepidation. The thing is, I'm scared of heights. It's not a full-blown phobia, and it doesn't keep me from doing what I need to do. For example, I've often climbed a ladder up to the roof of my house. I don't enjoy doing it, and I do it with my heart in my mouth, but I can do it. Still, there's a big difference between going up the ladder to the roof, and jumping off a cliff!
So when it came my turn, I got hooked up to the cable, stepped to the edge, and... stepped back. I couldn't do it.
And I'm standing there, aware of the other people waiting their turn. And I'm particularly aware of Terry, standing right behind me. Terry, who is blind. Who had a hip replacement two years ago. Who had knee surgery just a couple of months ago. Who will jump off without a moment's hesitation (I know my wife). And if she can do it, I should be able to do it!
So there I stood, trembling on the brink. Too scared to jump, and too proud to back down. (Not to mention too cheap to back down - did I mention that this little adventure was costing us a hundred bucks each?)
So I jumped. Actually, I sort of fell forward, till gravity took over and I had no choice. And I zipped. Hyperventilating all the way. Clutching that tether so hard that my arms ached all the rest of that week.
So here are some pictures, to prove that this really happened, and wasn't all just a bad dream...
They float through the air
With the greatest of ease
Those daring young? folks
On the flying... uh, zipline
Well, the first time was the worst. First time? Yeah, we did it three times each. After I realized that I had survived the first one, the others weren't as bad. The second and third times I did it backwards - that is, I stood with my back to the edge and fell back. For some reason, that was less scary - maybe because I couldn't see what was happening (maybe that's why Terry's so fearless). Also, it's easier because the guide is standing there, cheerfully ready to give you a little push to help you on your way.
Getting back up to the platform was almost more of an adventure than the ziplining itself. After you climb down the ladder, you step off the platform, and follow a short trail to - you guessed it...
Yet Another Swinging Bridge
You have to climb up two short ladders to get to the bridge. The bridge itself is very shaky. Then you have to climb backwards down another ladder to get back to the ground. Then you follow a very rocky, uneven trail back, and you have to cross another bridge (that doesn't swing) over the stream from the base of the waterfall. Then you have to climb four sets of stairs to get back up to the launching platform. Whew.
After the zipping, the guides took us to another location, where we went down a VERY rocky trail to a swimming hole. There was a rope swing there, but Terry and I had had enough adventuring by then, and didn't try it.
On the walk back up, I commented to the guide that I was surprised that they hadn't had any problem with letting Terry do the ziplining. So often, we've had people try to tell us that Terry can't do this or that because she's blind - we've even had people try to not let her on carnival rides! The guide's response was that, as far as they're concerned, if someone's courageous (or crazy) enough to try it, they'll let them do it. (Of course, we had to sign a liability waiver.)
So after we got back, we had a quick lunch from a taco stand, and then I went off to have an adventure of my own. I went snuba diving. No, that's not a misprint - I don't mean SCUBA diving, I mean SNUBA diving.
Snuba diving is similar to scuba diving, in that you breathe through the same kind of mouthpiece, but instead of carrying the tanks on your back, they float on a raft above you, and you're connected by an air hose. It's called "snuba" because it's kind of a cross between scuba and snorkel.
It was fascinating. I've never been scubaing or snorkeling, so this was a brand new experience for me. It's a whole other world down there. Thousands of brightly colored fish swimming all around, and an eerie sort of underwater moonscape of sand and rocks. I saw sea cucumbers, and held a spiny urchin. And I saw an old disused drainpipe, which sort of looked out of place among all the natural wonder. I also tried feeding some fish, but one of them got overly aggressive and bit my hand, so I gave up on that.
The weird thing, though, was that when I tried to get up out of the water, I got dizzy and disoriented and fell back in. And then, even after I got back on land, I felt woozy. The guide said that happens sometimes. I had an inner ear infection when I was a boy, and that might have something to do with it. It took about a half hour or so before I felt normal again.
So why didn't Terry go? Because there would be no way for us to communicate underwater. I thought there might be some kind of radio communication between divers, but there wasn't - and even if there was, I wouldn't be able to talk with the breathing apparatus in my mouth. So for Terry, it would just be spending half an hour underwater, without being able to hear or see anything - sort of a sensory deprivation exercise.
That evening, we all went to dinner at a nice restaurant called Hukilau Lanai, and then we took Ron and Mindy to the airport. For the rest of the trip, we were on our own.