SURVIVING BUNGEE JUMPING AT VICTORIA FALLS!

Let me start by saying. OH. MY. GOD!!!! This was the MOST TERRIFYING THING I’VE EVER DONE IN MY LIFE!! I definitely had PTSD for days after. Every time I fell asleep I felt that feeling of falling….and falling….and falling….. over and over again.

This was my first time bungee jumping and WOW what a thrilling experience. I must be a bit mentally insane because I have no idea why this was on my bucket list and I have no idea how I mentally was okay with jumping off a freaking bridge. It was EPIC though and I’m proud of myself for doing it.

Bungee jumping at Victoria Falls is done literally right between Zambia and Zimbabwe, on the Victoria Falls Bridge and it is 364 FEET HIGH!! The Zambezi river flows underneath the bridge and separates the countries.

The company is called Shearwater Victoria Falls Bungee. If you are too nervous to do the full jump and drop, they offer a bridge swing and a zip line experience… or you can choose a package for all 3! I definitely looked up the safety of the company before I committed. I was pleasantly surprised with the statistics and the safety of the company…however looking it up again I just read about a women’s bungee cord snapping in 2012….glad I didn’t read about that until just now…ignorance is bliss??

I have to say, I did feel like the company was very safe and professional. They checked the ropes, harnesses, and clips multiple multipleeeee times before jumping. They also are video recording during the safety checks, which weirdly did make me feel better…whether that is to document the experience or for liability reasons or both, who knows haha.

Watching other people jump before me inspired me on what not to do when it was my turn. So many people would chicken out right before jumping, a lot of them screaming or crying….but they weren’t doing themselves any favors and they still ended up jumping. I knew if I freaked out I was just prolonging the inevitable and making it wayyyyy worse on myself mentally. I wanted to be in control of how and when I jumped. I do however wish they had a theme song you could choose to jump to because that would have definitely pumped me up and empowered me, but I just had to hype myself up in my head and go for it. I DJ’d in my head alternating between Boss Bitch by Doja Cat and I Can Do It With A Broken Heart by Taylor Swift. Safe to say that my music choices worked for me because I dominated that mother fucking jump!

The main sensation I had after the jump was basically that awful feeling you get when you are in a nightmare and you are falling and falling and falling and waiting to be woken up or to be caught by someone….yet it doesn’t happen! I screamed for most of the time on the way down but once it really hit me what was happening I instinctively put my hand over my heart (like that is going to do anything) and I was literally speechless. One of the first thoughts I had was what the fuck did I just do and the second was, yeah I can see why people with medical problems shouldn’t do this. The second worst feeling after the initial fall was when I was bouncing back up into the air and I suddenly saw everything right side up and I thought oh shit no no no no if I’m right side up that means I’m going to fall and drop back down even harder! I looked like a fish at the end of a pole fending for it’s life.

After you stop bouncing around you are hanging there vulnerable and helpless like a loser looking down at the water contemplating if you could survive the drop into the river and the rapids. You have too much time in your thoughts until one of the staff members repels down and hooks himself onto your rope to get you right side up so you can ascend to the bridge. I got so scared because I could feel something going on with my rope but couldn’t see what it was, thank god it was just freaking Wayne coming to my rescue. After you get up on the first bridge you have a couple of ladder climbs and bridge walks and then finallyyyy you are back safe on the ground! Then you walk back to the spot where it all happened to get out of your harness, and there are African people trying to sell you carved wooden figurines and trying to profit off of your endorphin high.

Overall it was a 10/10 experience, I felt like such a badass after and especially after I watched the video back. I honestly don’t know if you could ever get over that feeling of falling. It is such a wild sensation and even though your mind knows you are attached to something, your body takes over and really does not like the feeling of falling, it literally goes against all of our survival instincts. I think I would do it again if I was in another really cool location and I had a friend or family member that wanted a jumping partner, but for now I think I’m content on adrenaline fueled activities. Long story short, I jumped off a bridge so you too should!

I had a lovelyyy bystander take my phone and document my jumping experience for me!! Video is linked below!