Every year we visit the beautiful county of Cornwall and indulge in Cornish Pasties and Cider. As we headed back to Cornwall for our final southern busking session we looked forward to our session in Truro. Today we were going to have a day off though as it was my birthday.
We traveled down last night in order to have early start. We visited a supermarket last night and Andy had insisted I stay in the van as he needed to get some shopping. I assumed it was some last minute birthday shopping, but to honest we haven’t had a minute to ourselves, turns out it was some little extras he wanted to pick up. It was my birthday today and Andy had a surprise up his sleeve for me. He told me to dress warm and wear loose clothing. We were going to have a day off and enjoy some type of adventure.
As we headed up to Lusty Glaze beach the views were fantastic, we were on top of a cliff by this point and constantly running through my head was the question “what did he have planned?” We parked up, suitably clothed and headed to the beach. We clambered down a million steep steps and arrived at a reservation hut; today my darling we are jumping off that cliff attached to a wire. Ha ha good stuff, I was soooo excited as I’d never jumped off a cliff before. I’d abseiled in the past but never anything this high. I couldn’t wait. Adrenalin pumping we climbed back up the stairs to our jumping point. The wire stretched from one cliff to another, it was a little bit windy but all in all the weather was good.
As we stood on the wooden platform at the top of the cliff, the instructor dressed us in our safety gear and proceeded to tell us what we needed to remember. He ran over it time and time again, He told us about “B,L,T” which didn’t unfortunately stand for a tasty Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich we were about to receive, it stood for “Belt, Line, Throttle”. He ingrained this on our brains and made us repeat it several times back to him. The look in Andy’s eyes whilst he stood there was priceless. Andy has a fear of heights you see, anything higher than a few steps makes his palms and feet tingle, so I was shocked that he had booked this activity (that’s love for you). I, on the other hand (although admittedly shaking a little with adrenalin) had no fear, I was in my element. Each to their own with phobias; spiders and deep water freak me out, but that’s partly down to growing up with a sadistic older brother who tormented the life out of me. Andy on the other hand to my knowledge had never fallen off a cliff.
So we were trained and ready to go. The instructor opened the little wooden gate that was separating us from the sudden drop; we were to fly together on wires next to each other. “B,L,T, Brake, Line, Throttle” “So after three, are you ready?” This is it, Andy had gone a whiter shade of green and there was no going back. “Three, Two, One, wahoooooooooooooooooo” I was flying, I could see the beach below and I felt like the possum on Ice Age when hes flying through the air. A second later I looked back towards the platform and Andy was still there looking whiter than a ghost, “C’mon” I shouted, and then he jumped. I couldn’t believe it.
It was amazing and a wonderful experience. We flew towards the other cliff, thinking we were going to hit it, luckily we started moving backwards as the wire pulled us towards the centre of the beach. Now this is where the training kicks in. Even after the training, the adrenalin is well and truly pumping and I couldn’t remember a word the instructor had said to me. There was no way I was going to let go of the rope, there’s an instinct to think your life depends on it. There was a guy below shouting up and I couldn’t hear a word he was saying. Andy was next to me on the other wire, I asked him why he hadn’t jumped, he informed me that he was letting me test it out and then he thought stuff it, if I don’t do it now, I never will.
Andy by this point was desperate to get down from the dangling rope, we were like spiders unsure of how to use our web. When your stood firm on the ground it is completely different to dangling in the air, when the people on the beach looked like miniature dolls. I unclipped my belt with one hand whilst clinging on with the other, dropped my line and tried to use the throttle on the harness. It wouldn’t work, I started to panic. Andy had started to descend at this point and was slowly moving towards the beach. I couldn’t let go of the other rope, my hands were hurting in a panic as for a split second I thought my harness was broken. Andy looked up and said “release it slowly” so I did and I began to travel towards the beach. We landed on the beach, back to safety and just lay on the sand for a minute, I sat up and said “again, again”. It was a brilliant experience and a birthday surprise to remember. Next year I want to jump out of a plane, but I think I may be pushing my luck with Andy.
We headed back to the van and Andy pulled out a picnic he had made of all my favourite things. It was a wonderful day and I know I’m extremely blessed, he later played happy birthday to me on the guitar and we had cake (oh and naturally a few ciders). Job Done.