The day I willingly got pushed off a mountain

Guess what? I tried riding a zip line for the first time! Though at the time I agreed to do it, I had no idea what I was in for.

See, I had thoughts of zipping from one tree to another and I thought that was not so bad. So off we went... high into the mountains of B'lakayo in General Santos, Mindanao (Southern Philippines). When we finally got there, my heart nearly gave out when I saw the cable... it was stretching out from the top of one mountain down to somewhere on the other mountain!

But since we already went all the way there... we decided to get harnessed and start hiking up that mountain to get to the starting platform.

It was the 7-minute hike that felt like forever. I am so out of shape. When we got to the top, I didn't want to move anymore... but this was waiting for me...

See the cable?

 Heart, don't fail me now... courage, don't desert me...

Photo taken by my husband (he had the camera). This is the view as you are about to jump off the mountain.

According to the resort owner, the entire ride will only take 35 seconds. It is currently the fastest zip line ride in the Philippines... and we had to pick this zip line for our first try huh?

And soon, it was my turn... *gulp* I held on for dear life and gave the go ahead to be pushed off.

That white speck in the middle... that's me :)

The first 5-10 seconds felt like falling... and falling very fast. I swore to myself I will not disgrace myself my screaming but... I totally DID! :-/ Ten seconds has never felt so LONG! But after that, the rest of the ride was fun. 

And the view was spectacular!

From top left: the mountains; the path on the way to the hike trail to the mountain.. other people were going to try the zipline; the view of the launching platform where we came from; view of the trees down below.

And then the first ride was over too quickly. Yeah... you heard that... FIRST. Because you have to zip down the SECOND cable to go back to the mountain where we came from.

The second ride also takes 35 seconds on a shorter cable, which means the speed is slower and the incline less steep. I enjoyed this second ride better.

View of the other side of the mountain. And then the tree tops.

And our adventure was over and it was time for a somewhat long walk back to the resort's receiving area to have lunch.

That's hubby!

What a great way to end 2011!

PS. If you're wondering where our daughter was while all this is happening, we left her at grandma's ;)