Jump Out from 14K feet

Imagine you flying in an aircraft at 14000 feet and the person next to you taps your shoulder and says "hey mate are you ready to jump off the plane?"... your first response would be " Wat?You must be crazy!!!". But what if you have paid $500 for that and the person has to jump with you for the amount he has taken from you. Yeah, thats what happened at 14000 feet above the Great Barrier Reef few months back!!

I always wanted to do something adventurous in life and it never came true when I was in India. The day I knew about my trip to Australia, I started googling for the most adventurous things that can be done in this heavenly country and the first thing that came up on the screen was Skydiving above "The Great Barrier Reef". Fully determined to jump off the plane , I booked the ticket to cairns with a group of friends and I was in this place called Pauls Skydiving the very next hour of landing in Cairns!

We were welcomed by a sweet receptionist and I was wondering if she is gonna jump off with me!! Oh my god!, 14K feet above and with a sweet gal, who will say no?I already started dreaming about that but that was short lived, I could see a person who exactly looked like Andrew Symonds brother coming towards me with a big smile saying "Hi Antony, I am XYZ and I will be jumping with you!". Hmmm, I was not scared about the jump but defenitely to jump with a person rather a monster like him!!

Took all the basic instructions about sky diving and we took off above the ocean to start the adventurous jump. Take offs and the view were never exiting to me as I have done enough flying and enough of peeping through the window :-)... Only thing that exited me was flying in an aircraft without a door!! Yeah you got me right, an aircraft without a door and we were sitting very next to it hoping not to be sucked out by the wind! But nothing crazy like that happened and we started ascending alltitudes and finally to the limit of 14000 feet.

Mr.XYZ tapped me and said "Are you ready, we will be seeing the almighty soon"... :-( ... Determined to see the almighty I slowly started moving towards the door and trust me, that was the craziest part in my life... to sit out of an aircrafts door at 14K feet facing the blades of the aircraft. I could see my grandpa and grandma waving hands from heaven at that moment... Anyways, we have come so far, just trust in god and jump offf!!!! and the monster started counting 1.... 2.... and 3.............. am offf the plane........

Great Ocean Drive

Have you heard about "20 things to be done before you die?"... well, if yes, you should be knowing this place... The great ocean road is one amongst them and its really one of the best things to be done, and especially if you are someone who loves driving... It takes around 150 Kms from Melbourne to reach the start of this marvellous drive... Make sure you start early from the city and reach the start before noon so that you can have a slow and steady drive towards the twelve apostles... (the common destination/end point for the great ocean drive)...

All along the drive you come across ocean on one side and it really is a splendid view...The roads are not so narrow, and you have no difficulties manoeuvring the car... Just be carefull about varying speedlimits , you may get carried away by the ecstacy and end up paying for the speeding tickets... You also should be carefull about the speed warnings and stick to it to avoid skidding... drive through for some hours and you touch a beautiful place Appollo Bay. Park the car there, go for a short walk, gather for barbeque, hang around some good restaurants for good fish and chips, salads and sandwiches and then head on towards the twelve apostles... This is the point where you get deviated from the usual ocean road and get into some tropical forests and you miss ocean for sometime... drive for another hour and you are in this heavenly place called the Twelve apostles.. they are still called so even though few apostles have fallen offf... you can spend quality time there... view points at various locations is really a boom to the tourists and its indeed a good feel to see this natural built beauty... This place is ideal to be visited on a clear day so that you can enjoy the view of the apostles...
Few things to be done is the helicopter ride over the apostles, a nice walk on the Gibs steps and a peaceful drive back via Colac and princess highway back to the city...
Ideal get away from Melbourne, here it is Great Ocean Road.........

In Aussie

After a long struggle, I landed in this divine country Australia. It's always great feeling when we are sent onsite. That too to a place like Australia was a blessed disguise for me. The first week was so exciting as everything was new to me. New people, new environment, new atmosphere etc etc.
But now i am a little settled with this place. Australia has become the part and parcel of my life....

Planning to write about the differnt places that i visited in Aus in my tenure...

More posts to come.....

This isn't my Debut!!

Hi to the blogosphere!,

Am not a debut to blogging, have been blogging for more than a year now. But within a short circle of my official blog site. Thought of coming in to a bigger circle and here I am.

Secondly, the non availablity of my company's blog is another reason for me to pop in here.
Well,
I love writing, about anything, what ever i like, feel, see, experience etc etc...
More of my postings to come in a short while.
Till then, have a good time.

Love,
Anto
The heart speaks