Switzerland: 2 canyons and 1 picnic

Well I did just about the craziest thing known to man (well, not really). I am sure that you are all waiting in suspense for how my two adventures were...and so I will tell you.

I woke up at around 8 a.m. on Saturday morning, had a single piece of bread for breakfast (don't worry Mom, there was jam on it...not just a diet of bread and water for me) and headed to the Alpine Peak adventure sport base right next to Funny Farm hostel. Our first adventure was Canyoning, an adventure sport unique to Interlaken, Switzerland (which is where we were, if that hasn't been mentioned previously). Our two extremely funny guides, Brett and Duncan, explained that what we were about to do was very dangerous and that we had to follow them and be careful and all the while I just smiled and nodded and saw my life flash before my eyes. Okay not really...what really happened was that we sat on wooden benches, were wet suited up in FULL (head to toe) wetsuits and loaded in a van and taken to a canyon.

We got to the dropoff spot in the glacier river water and stepped in and from there-on-out, it was pure fun and pure adventure. In the water we were climbing over natural log bridges, under waterfalls, repelling off rock walls to get to lower areas of the canyon, climbing behind waterfalls, sliding down natural waterslides, and jumping off cliffs into narrow and shallow pools where we had to land in specific spots in a specific way or as duncan said "we wouldn't be able to tell them about it". but i made it...and wasn't even too cold when i finished!! It was soo wonderful. The ice cold water felt really good too. it was when we were climbing behind a waterfall and i looked back at Mary (one of the girls travelling with us) that I really realized what we were doing. We were in Switzerland, swimming in water straight from the top of the Alps!! To make the 2.5 hour adventure abbreviated, it was REALLY fun, but not much of an adrenaline rush. The next "adventure sport" however, sure did the trick for adrenaline.

Our appointment was at 12 noon and while we sat on the wooden benches for the second time, this time surrounded by bungee jumpers, it kind of hit all of us that we were really doing something crazy!! Zan wrote his will (literally, he really did) in his journal and we were all really really quiet. Kind of a weird trance or something had come over us and it seemed as if we were contemplating life itself, which was probably true considering what we were about to do. A 20 mintue bus ride (in silence, mind you) brought us to a HUGE canyon probably no more than 80 ft. wide. The thought that was spinning though my head was "We are NOT here yet...we are NOT jumping off that thing!!" But alas, as the driver of the van pointed upwards, a very small platform was visible 280 ft. above the roaring river that lay at the bottom of the 80 ft. wide canyon..."That's it!!" he said confidently. I was anything but confident.

The van drove to the top of the canyon and after a 5 minute walk/hike, I was holding on the a guard rail that kept me from falling the 280 ft. into the roaring river below. They weighed us and wrote the weights on our hands (at this point I was feeling like i was headed into prison or something with my ID number tattooed on my chest--or hand in this case) They harnessed us up and I realized that my life was going to be put in the hands (or seams) of rope and 2 carabiners...great thought, huh?? I was second in line (only because some guy was on a tight schedule I guess because he had to bungee jump right after he canyon jumped)...so I like to think that I was first because I was quite adamate about being first in line, thinking that if I wasn't , I would freak out and not be able to do it. I wasn't having a problem at all with the height, it was the speed that bothered me...you'll understand in a minute...keep reading. So I am hooked to a harness with only 2 carabiners and then hooked to a long long long rope that is connected the middle of the canyon by two cables (yes, only two). Standing on the platform, the guy who operates the whole thing lifts the guard rope and has me step onto the yellow arrow that is pointing in the direction of a large large 280ft. high rock wall--the wall of the canyon/ravene. "JUMP!!" he says. I don't move. At that point I think it really hit me what exactly I was doing. Zan had pretty much written his will in his journal...and I was there on the platform trusting my life to two pieces of metal some crazies call carabiners that were probably made in China or something (not saying that Chinese work isn't of quality, of course). I didn't have another choice, though. I had gone that far...there was NO WAY I was turning around. So all I could do was jump--and I did. I fell fast...really fast, free-falling for about what we think was probably around 150ft. When free-falling stopped, the rope went taunt and I was launched (mind you, connected to the rope only via a harness and 2 carabiners) through the air at a speed of probalby around 60 mph (give or take a few mph--all you engineers/physics nerds can figure that out for me) through the air and headed straight for the rock wall that the yellow arrow had been pointing to. I kept getting faster and faster and ....remember how I said that it was only the speed that bothered me?? WEll as I was getting faster and faster and faster, I let out a scream because I looked up and the only thing I saw was the LARGE and HARD rock wall getting closer and closer and when it was around 10 ft. away my scream probably curdled some blood (not really because it was muffled by the roar of the River). So, obviously, I missed the rock wall but I stopped just short of it and then swung back and forth, still hanging above the roaring river below, for a few minutes while I attempted to grab a rope to pull myself in to yet another platform that had been strung across the canyon so I could be unhooked by a crazy New Zealander named Ziggy (don't know about you, but it is hard to trust someone named Ziggy...think about it). When I finally stepped on the platform again, I was so pumped with energy...it was amazing. I wanted to hug everything I saw, everything except Ziggy that it...but since I was the first of my friends to go, I just had to wait.

I sat by the River, my nerves slowly calming, as I watched the following 4 people jump, who just happen to be the people I was travelling with...and I gave each of them BIG hugs when they made it to solid ground safely. For all of you who don't belive my story, I have pictures to prove it...I will be more than happy to show them to you :)

Being sooo mentally exhausted from the rush of adrenaline and physical exertion in the canyon earlier in the day, we decided to lay low the rest of the day. We just hung out around the hostel and walked around the town. When dinnertine came, Zan's adrenaline was still in his blood--a lot of adrenaline. He decided that we needed to hike to the lake to eat dinner, as if we hadn't had enough adventures for the day. So there we were, five of us--four completley exhausted and one at the front of the group with authentic german hat and guidemap leading the way (that would be Zan..) to the lake. The lake never found us...or I guess we never found the lake. Instead we ended up at some Swiss truckstop, which wasn't very condusive to the picnic that Mary and I had packed. So, one dissapointed Zan and his four elated companions walked to the park that was MUCH closer than the 45 minutes to the lake to our hostel. We sat on a blanket in the middle of the park and watched the sunset on the Alps, watched the paragliders land in the open area next to our blanket, and listened to a guy play the piano in a nearby restaurant. It was perfect...and again, I have pictures to show you when I get back :) We stayed until dark just talking and joking around...when the bugs started biting me, I announced that it was time to replenish the bugspray and head back to the hostel.

After an adventure filled day and a beautiful picnic at sunset, I was mentally and physically exhausted. I didn't forget to say my prayers, though, thanking God for protection and friendship--two things I have come to realize more than ever before are irreplacable :)