THE BIG RUSH

i know this is a post that some may be looking forward to, okay, just my mom, but still it's a pretty exciting one!

on august 10th we decided to go to the moses mabhida stadium. you may know this stadium as one that hosted the 2010 soccer world cup. however, we were not going to watch a soccer game, we were going to free fall off a small bridge just a measly 106 meters (350 feet) into the field below!!! 

who cares if you're about to jump off a bridge
when you look this good?

before we could jump we had to get suited up into harnesses equipped with a safety cable! the workers were very stressed due to overbooking problems so they were very brief with instructions about the equipment and quick to apply the harness, this did nothing for our nerves.

after we were all suited up we had a very brief (that may even be an understatement) lesson about what to do when we got to the top.  the instructor simply said, in his zulu accent, "fear is contagious so when you get to the top we have no time to wait for you to be a freak, so just jump".  he followed this by saying "we also have no time for questions, so if you want to ask one later, don't or you will be very disappointed." haha you can imagine how these kind words soothed our worries.

however, we moved forward and made the walk to the arch where we would take 365 steps up the stairs to the top and then take 1 step off the bridge.  

the star in the picture below is where we were going to be jumping from.  the stadium was absolutely beautiful and it was a perfect day to jump! i won't lie, walking up all the stars was pretty exhausting but it's a good way to get your mind off what you're about to do! 

the view from atop the stadium was absolutely gorgeous! 

our friends dave and matthew went first. we had bought matthew a ticket for his birthday and took him as a surprise.  unfortunately, we found out that matthew was afraid of heights once we were there and strapped in. so naturally, he had to go despite his immense fear!  he was cracking everyone up at the top with his nervous jokes and laughter. AND it turns out shaun is afraid of heights as well! haha so you can only imagine how nervous he was as well! silly boys!

once you reach the top you make your way across a shaky bridge to the rope where two men rush to strap you, in and if you're unlucky, even push you off. you free fall for 60 meters, which is about 200 feet!!!  you then swing from a rope connected to the stadium's iconic arch which is 220 meters (720 feet) high. 

dave was a champ and jumped off no problem.  matthew and shaun both insisted on holding the guys arm so they practically got thrown off the bridge.  i took one big jump and tried not to shut my eyes! for me it felt like i was jumping into a sea of green! it happened so fast and i think i held my breath the whole way down! 

you only swing about 3 times before being pulled back up to the top where you attempt to quickly get your legs to work again so you can walk back across the bridge to the stairs.  getting pulled back up is almost as scary as jumping off because once the adrenaline rush is gone you have time to think about and realize that you are pretty much just dangling from the rope 200 feet above a stadium.

the whole experience was so much fun and so amazing!! we were lucky enough to have sue and wobs sitting in the stands watching us and they took some amazing pictures!! 

if you want to see a video of the whole experience here is a link: 

http://youtu.be/nXteljErWP0  -- or simply youtube "the big rush experience" 

i don't think even the pictures do it justice! 

i am on the left above and shaun is on the right. we just look like little specks! 

 

i still can't believe we all went through with it! the walk down the stairs was so difficult because our legs were still shaking! but when we got to the ground we were all so happy we did it, or maybe just happy to still be alive, that we collapsed onto the floor.  you can tell by the picture that matthew was the most happy to be on solid ground again!! haha

this experience was absolutely amazing and definitely a highlight of the trip, hope to do it again someday! and despite his fears shaun will be doing it again too! :)

markets of warwick triangle 
 

on august 3 we went on the markets of warwick triangle tour. 

warwick junction is a local market in durban that is divided up into several distinct markets.  the market consists of 5000 to 8000 different vendors on any given day! that is a crazy amount of people if you think of it. the tour takes 2.5 hours so you can image how HUGE the entire market is!! warwick triangle was started by the local vendors which is amazing and they work hard to keep it free of crime.  the tour is also run by the local vendor and many of them are the tour guides, including our lovely lady, sthembiso.

the first market that we saw was the bead market. these amazing laddies arrive at 4:30am each morning to claim their spot and sell their meticulous, beautiful bead work.  all their stuff is absolutely amazing and would be ten times more expensive in america! i bought a beautiful beaded giraffe for 20 rand, roughly $2. 

although the area is much improved, it is still very dirty and smells poor due to the fact that many of these vendors live here full time as well and there are no bathrooms, if you know what i mean. 

the next markets we went through was the impepho markets.  this market sells two distinct things: lime and impepho.  Impepho is a traditional incense used to facilitate communications with one's ancestors.  i almost bought some to try it out - sadie? are you there? okay, okay, so my old dog is not exactly my ancestor, but how cool would that be if it did work? as you can see these incense are sold straight off the branch! the lime is sold in giant white and red balls and can be used for identifying trainee izangoma (traditional healers), and other things, including sun screen!  it was pretty crazy because each ball was almost as big as a basket ball but only cost 15 rand, which is about 2 dollars! 

the brook street market was next; which sells all sorts of african things. one of the main things it sells are pinafores, these are dresses worn by zulu women indicating if they are single (no sleeves) or married (short sleeves).  this market is a lot like a flea market with everyone selling random things, from underwear to old VHS videos to knock off bags.  our tour guide actually had a table here and told us that each vendor pays rent to stay here and some people actually sleep next to their tables because their homes are so far away.   

next was the berea market where there are food stores and random tables selling more random things. the noise level in this area is out of control! they literally have huge speakers with music blasting! i don't know how anyone could work there all day! it was soo loud and crowded. 

after that we went across the music bridge which was even louder!!! it is just full of people selling tapes, shoes, hats, scarves, and all sorts of thing! but sooooo loud i don't know how they do it all day! 

the next market was the early morning market which is where they sell all of the fruit, veggies, and spices.  you can get 20 potatoes for 1 dollar there! everything looked so good we had to buy some bananas to make muffins with! 

after that we went to the grossest and most memorable market of all the markets, the bovine head cooking market. yes that's bovine, as in cow head!! 

[hint: don't look at the next set of pictures if you get queasy and/or are a vegetarian or vegan, cause you won't like what you see!!!] 

there were TONS of chickens! it smelt like chicky poo!

they bring you out slices of cooked cow head and a dumpling made of steamed bread. the place is pretty messy but for us they cleaned off a nice area and brought our food out on a nice wooden board so there was no way we could say no! the meat wasn't that bad, mine may have even had a cow hair still on it haha. it was fine until you look across the market and see how the laddies are using axes to cut off the cow head meat on cow heads that still look very much alive!! it was so crazy but we had to do it! i am glad we tried it before i actually took a second to look around or else i probably wouldn't have been able to do it! and i won't lie i felt a little queasy after seeing all the cow heads sitting there and the laddies man handling them with axes!

the last market was a herb market where they sell herbs and all sorts of things that izangoma's (traditional healers) use. this includes bark from special trees, bones of animals, and yes even a baboon hand which we had to sneak a picture of due to the fact that it's severely illegal! the izangomas are kind of like witch doctors and are part of the zulu culture. the woman in the photo is a izangoma and they wear the white lime on their skin to distinguish themselves.  this market was way crazy to see all of the things that they use, it was almost like a movie! many of the dead animals and birds are dried creating a very unique smell.  all of the powders and things they were selling in this area were very very expensive! one pinch of love potion was 170 rand!! that's about $20 dollars for a pinch of powder! 

the tour was absolutely amazing and such a culture shock! it was so cool to see how these people make a living and how some of them live! the people there couldn't have been more nice.  i highly highly recommend it to any of you planning on traveling to good old durbs :)