Woke up with butterflies this morning. The day has finally arrived for me to go indoor skydiving.

I am not the most adventurous person and I really don’t like stepping outside of my comfort zone. However, I have opened myself up to trying new things this year and I have promised myself to at least try things. So indoor skydiving was on the list of things to try,

Got to the iFly centre this morning, paid and went upstairs. There were 2 chambers. I stood looking at them and my first impression was that this was going to be easy. The chambers are tiny and don’t look the least but scary – don’t know what I have been worried about. (Pic of a chamber below)

Watched their little instruction video, got changed into a flight suit, put in the earplugs and donned the helmet and goggles. Right – time to go into the chamber.

They would not let son no 2 participate as he has broken his clavicle in the past. Apparently he can go skydiving but the indoor version is a lot more pressure and he could injure himself. So it was hubby and I and son 3 and 4 in the chamber along with the instructor.

Then the doors vacuum lock behind you and the fans start up……. Now you understand what the earplugs are for! The pressure in the whole chamber is building up and the instructor looks at us all to say who is first?

Son no 3 kindly volunteered (thank goodness). So in he goes and all of a sudden it does not look that easy. Every movement you make influences how the wind reacts and how high or low you go or if you go smashing into the sides of the chamber.

He comes out after about 2 or 3 minutes and hubby goes in. Same thing – and it looks like hard work. Then it is a toss up between son no 4 and me. GULP! Should I chicken out now? Luckily son no 4 gets up and goes in. He is like me – also not very adventurous. So if he can do it, I can do it. So once he finishes, I get up and take the first step towards the fan. Point of no return……

I fold my arms in and lean forward into the wind and I am “flying”. It is an amazing feeling. The instructor is guiding me and pulling me and telling me what to do with my arms and legs. It is noisy, there is a lot of pressure and all of a sudden I feel claustrophobic and I can’t breathe! After a minute or so I give the thumbs down. The instructor guides me out. It is definitely quite daunting and very overwhelming. All your senses are on high alert.

Hubby and son no 3 have another go. Son no 4 doesn’t want to go in again. That leaves me! Am I going to give it another try? I swallow hard and reason that I survived the first session so it can’t be any worse that that. I ask to go in for a short time only and once again fold my arms in and lean into the wind.

Finally my turn is up. (Thank goodness). After the second time, I had had enough and did not want to go in again. Definitely a once in a life time experience and I am so glad I did it. I have proved to myself once again that it can be exciting to try new things – even if they are scary.

Afterwards we went 10 pin bowling and had a load of fun. Walked through the mall and had fast food for lunch. Then we went back to the hotel.

This afternoon was spent at the pool again just being lazy and we went out for dinner this evening.

So we had a thoroughly enjoyable day.

We are going up the Burj Khalifa tomorrow morning – the tallest building in the world. Hope to get some good photo’s from up there and hope the cloud cover isn’t too thick.

Ciao for now
Lanthie