Better late than never! On Thursday 19th of April 2018 I completed one of the last super scary things I will do before becoming a mother, who know’s it may be my last every optional scary thing I do. I hear being a parent has some of its own hair-raising experiences, so I shall never say never.
I abseiled and ziplined down the Perth QV1 building, QV1 is the fourth tallest building in my hometown of Perth, at 40 storeys high and just over 160 meters (525 feet) its no small feat.
At this stage, you may be asking why on did I undertake this crazy death-defying act?
Simply because I can, I am an ostomate, as in I have a stoma and a permanent ostomy bag for life, in the beginning, I believed my life would be severely restricted by having one but without it, I would be dead and would never be able to attempt such an act.
My reason’s have not changed from my original Training Post, so I am quoting myself.
- Raise awareness about ostomies and ostomates,
- To break the stigma associated with having an ostomy,
- To give hope to anyone who is still struggling through the stages of finding themselves again after a life-changing event,
- To raise money for support services for ostomates.
Somedays all you need is someone who has been there and done that to know that there is going to be a positive tomorrow to look forward too.
The Descent
I can’t say I wasn’t scared as you will clearly see from the below clip I was shaking like a leaf and openly ask my self why am I doing this as I start over the edge. What I can say is the lead up to the event was worse than the event itself. Well with the exception of stepping off the edge on the zip line after looking down.
My hubby @shai-hulud had to laugh as I told him about these before reminding me that there is more than one rope holding me up at any one time and I was not in control of them all.
In truth there was actually three ropes holding me up, of which I only had one to control, the other two were backups in case either of my nightmares came true. As it turns out, none of my fears were founded and I make it from top to bottom without too many hiccups.
What I wasn’t prepared for was the inability to hold myself against the granite wall we were abseiling down. It proved a much harder task then the training prepared us for. Due to an awning at the bottom of the building, the third rope was also a guide away from the building with meant a freefall abseil required for the last ten or so floors.
This meant I had a constant pulling away from the building sensation that scared the crap out of me and made me squeal more than once. My inability to hold myself on the wall also added a lot of pressure to my back, which turned into pain around floor 30, making the abseil in all honesty, a less than pleasurable experience.
I hurried down the building wishing I was much closer to the bottom then I was, dreading the zip line that was to follow. So much so that I even thought about pulling out. I had done what I had planned on doing and didn’t fancy another painful 10 minutes hanging from a rope.
Enter Miss Gabby…
To my surprise besides the initial part of getting attached to the contraption that was going to assist me to zip line, as it was more of an assisted freefall than a zip line, and once I got used to the heights, the actual descent was quite pleasurable, I even let go of my harness long enough to do some Wonderwoman poses and fly like a bird into landing.
My lovely hubby @shai-hulud once again spent the day filming the event so we have a full account of the day from different angles. He also gave me a crash course in video editing, so he would no longer have to do it for me, so I apologise in advance for any decline in future quality.
Please note that if you do suffer from a fear of heights, you have been warned, there are extreme heights contained within this video.
So pleased to have completed both the descent and the zip line!
