Here is why you have to bungee jump before you die

A small but hip company I worked for last year decided to give all staff members a treat in efforts to foster team building at the same time. They chose Jinja for obvious reasons; being that it is close to Kampala and has so many companies that offer exciting team activities like white water rafting, quad-bike riding, bungee jumping, boat cruising, zip lining and so on.

Management had initially asked each one to write down the activity they would like to participate in but later decided to do one activity as a whole. They must have figured that it was better cheaper and time-saving for team building compared to each one doing one activity all by themselves.

White water rafting was out of question because so few people had chosen it. Zip lining had also been chosen by one or two. Bungee jumping had been chosen by just three people including yours truly. Almost everyone had chosen quad-biking because, you know, everyone aspires to ride a motorcycle and a quad-bike is the closest they will ever get to actually riding a motorcycle.

As you might have guessed, I am a motorcyclist. And as you might have guessed again, all motorcyclists despise quad-bikes. They offer none of the things we look for in motorcycles, while also pretending to. They are not fast, they are not mean-looking, zero danger on offer and therefore zero adrenaline expended. So I flatly refused to go quad-biking.

Unbeknownst to me, one young lady from middle management also didn’t want to go quad-biking. As it turned out, she was still traumatized after suffering a near-fatal accident on a bodaboda some months before. As the team quaded off into the midday sun through the bushes of Jinja, she asked me what other activity the two of us could do. I suggested bungee jumping and to my surprise, she bought the idea immediately. Another female colleague that had not gone quad biking for some reason joined our little renegade group and tagged along. Off we went.

The expectancy

The bungee tower is the first thing that you see the moment you get out of the car when you are here to jump. Some buildings stand between the parking lot and the bungee tower at the location but somehow your brain jumps over the buildings to focus on the imposing steel structure perched atop a cliff that deeps into the Nile.

At the reception, the three of us were registered and made to sign a waiver form. This effectively meant that if you jump to you death, these guys are not to blame. It’s all on you. They didn’t invite you here.

A sane person usually makes a U-turn at this point and goes off to drink beer, take a boat ride or any other safe activities on offer in Jinja. But most people who go for bungee jumping have thrown all sense to the wind.

At registration, you get to choose between the long and the short jump. The long jump goes all the way down and enables you to touch the water while the short jump stops midair.

Going up those steel stairs is a moment of sheer self-doubt. You know you have already paid and signed the waiver form, so there is no turning back. But as you go higher and higher on the scaffolding, and the true picture of the height starts becoming clearer, the thought of jumping over a 200 ft cliff seems like a counter intuitive idea. It is extreme exhalation to say the least. Like the first time your dream girl finally said yes, to your absolute shock! Excited for the opportunity, but scared that you might mess it up and beat yourself up for life.

The pep talk

If you want to meet the most eloquent motivational speakers, go bungee jumping. These guys know that you in the middle of an actual existential crisis up here. They have seen hundreds of people go through this. They tell you how they have done it 398 times and not one time did they not fear or enjoy it. After taking your weight, they tell you how safe it is to jump as they lock steel and Kevlar harnesses on your body. But you are not listening. The sound of your heartbeat is drowning out all other sounds. Your body is covered in a cold sweat and your breath is short.

The jump 

As you stand on the metallic precipice overlooking the roaring Nile River, you are presented with two choices: whether to jump facing forward or be pushed facing away from the fall point. You are also asked whether you want to fall by your ankles or in a sitting position. Having made your choices, you are harnessed accordingly and given a moment to ready yourself. Then the countdown begins.

Five seconds into the jump and the only thing you can think about is what a huge mistake you have just made. Everything is outside your control. If anything goes wrong, this is it. You can’t help but scream. You scream because you are mortified. You scream because you are calling for help. You scream because you are celebrating the fact that you have done! All these feelings are very clear to you.

All your blood, the whole ten pints of it, seems to head to your head for some reason, especially the face. Your heart is pounding. It is as heavy as a concrete ball, probably because it is trying to suck all the blood out your dumb head. Your arms feel extremely heavy and useless.

It’s impossible to describe. It’s like riding on a motorcycle at 260km/h. You know death is right behind the curtain and the thrill of it just makes your think, if I die, I die. This is a good way to go. It’s euphoric. Nothing like it in the world. Not even psychedelics with their capability to make you see heaven. Some people hold their bellies while others wrap their hands on their faces in utter disbelief. The one thing that cuts across with all participants is the screaming.

The brain

The brain is a super computer. In those thirty seconds of falling, you think a lot of thoughts. Your brain knows no time. In those few seconds, you think of ideas so vast they could fill a book. In that moment, you are a genius.

But there is something else. When I was falling, probably 2 seconds in the jump, I remember thinking about people that commit suicide by falling off tall buildings. While I could trust the bungee rope and the harnesses holding my body, suicide jumpers have no fall back. Once they jump, it is finished. They probably die of regret before they hit the pavement. Bungee jumping scares you to death but you are half sure that at least it won’t end in death.

It takes about 20 seconds to reach the water, but the experience of thinking you are dying while also knowing you are safe, is... is... it’s hard to put in words.

Nothing like it. Nothing. I have ridden a large, brand-new Harley Davidson motorcycle on a German Autobahn at maximum speed, for over 1000km. The thrill is not the same. In the end, it is not happiness. It is euphoria. It’s a drug that should be made illegal. It can get addictive fast.

And when you resurrect, and climb the cliff back to the restaurant area, you just want to do one thing: to hug someone. It won’t matter who it is. It could be your feared HR manager, and you will hug her and lift her in the air. You won’t care because of the euphoria. Amazing. Bungee jumping exceeds all expectation by 1000%! It is worth way more than we pay for it.