More "Excitement" Than You Have Paid For! orWhat Happens When You Reach the Bottom?

Our world undergoes the sinusoidal principals of periodic declines and climbings. In our days of the global recession when everyone waits when we reach the bottom and start climbing up I would like to share with you the truly unexpected experience. It's hard to believe but there was a case in my life when I got an idea that it's probably not so great to live in periodic world.

It was Bungy Jumping!

It's really interesting to think how strange the trivial or not so trivial things unexpectedly push you to philosophic discoveries. Now I know that whatever could make you philosopher, even the falling with the bullet speed (was it 2 Mach or it's too much?) down to the Earth surface.

- Man, your knees are shaking, - bungy master tried to take the strain off.
- I bet!

Crane raised us up to 75 meters from the sea level. The night lights on the embankment of Turkish resort Kushadasi laid under and in front of us. Ants watched up expecting the next thrilling fun - one more stupid jumper trying to be cool.

- Turn around. Now take your hands off these rails, if you do not jump I will push you.
- No need. I can fly.

No doubts I can. It's easy to die in sight. Especially if there's a huge crowd below.

I spread my hands and jumped in a classic style seen on TV.

My first discovery was:

DISCOVERY 1: "To fall" does not mean "to fly".
Yeh, you rather feel yourself a dropping pickaxe with the stretched out hands rather then a glyding bird with the spread wings.

DISCOVERY 2: You have time to think about if you fall from the high enough altitude.
I thought about one thing: when it will finish?

DISCOVERY 3: No need to worry about your legs.
I was worrying whether my legs will remain with me when the rope will stop my fall. No problem there. It slows down gently. It slows down and you have more extra time to think about.

And that's exactly the illumination moment. The moment when you make your philosophic discovery about imperfection of periodic world:
DISCOVERY 4: Damn, it will pull me up again!
Right, dude, that's exactly the whole idea of Bungy:

TO GIVE YOU MORE "EXCITEMENT" THEN YOU HAVE PAID FOR!!!

From this moment you start enjoying Bungy Jumping again. And again. And again. And...
Of course amplitude reduces and 50 meters are much lower then 75 metres! What we are talking about! It's just a poor 17 storey building! Even nothing to discuss!

And, right, don't forget that all this time you need to look like a cool man not like a sack of shit! Crowd's looking, dude:
DISCOVERY 5: It's a hard job for your legs to keep you in a vertical position.
My calfs remembered my endless jumping for a couple days like after the ice hockey match. My back also remembered how I tried to keep the face up pulling head back as a maniac victim with a knife near the throat!

There are several hundred meter bungy in New Zealand, Africa and other parts of the world. I am not sure that bungy is what should inspire me or you to go there. But, mates, after all of above, being there, would you miss an opportunity to try?

Hot Hot Air Ballooning

This post opens the the new section of the "WildBron is On", which we will call "unExpected Experiences". It's about what I did not mind before I tried.


- I told you, bring a cap, - pilot shakes his head.
- Yeah, but it was too late.

It was a mid summer in Moscow and we took off for our first in a lifetime Hot Air Balloon flight. We had no idea how it is upstairs "outside the airplane cabin". Wishing to be prepared we prepared everything from Pepsi to warm high-mountain dawn equipment. But everything was not necessary at all. All was left in the ground-escort mini-van. Caps (or hat if you prefer) - the only what we needed. And the only what we did not have.

It's not cold in a sky. Of course, if you will take part in the serious flight on high altitudes you find out that temperature drops a degree per every couple hundred meters, but "normally tourists don't fly too high". Sounds like aphorism. Should remember this.

Soon after boarding we understood why Hot Air Ballooning is called "Hot". It's really hot above your head. Besides I found one more disadvantage of being tall (you know I collect all those funny things like obstructed view in a bus when you stay not having seat): The taller you are the closer is the fire.

Balloon is not a toy in a hands of the wind. Or more correct: it is a toy, but pilot can control how wind plays with it. Everyone asks pilot:
-How do you know where we will go?
There is no steering wheel. But the atmosphere is pretty chaotic and damnly whimsical Lady. Changing the height, pilot is able to catch the wind of the required direction. Our pilot was of real Russian aces, owning the 230 km in a day non-stop flight record, but the only small problem he faced - we did not have wind at all. Nowhere. On all heights. After 1.5 hours of hanging we moved ahead just for around 2km.

Another thing which I knew before and wanted to make sure is: There is no wind when you ballooning. Balloon follows the wind and only some unexpected blows break the impression of a quiet whether. I did not have an opportunity to make sure due to calm weather, but pilot assured me that it's true.

Buoyancy control is everything for Hot Air Ballooning. Remembering the difficulties with my underwater buoyancy control during diving I was surprised how professionals can manage this huge inertial body of the hot air. Keeping 5 centimetres above the ground or the tree-tops is not a problem for professionals but another unExpected Experience for passengers.

I'd now want to try it somwhere above NgoroNgoro. Would you?