Chapter 3

For anyone with a fear of heights, then I definitely do not recommend doing what we are about to do.

We arrived here by helicopter (which was scary enough for some, no names mentioned), and were told that our first challenge was bungee jumping. Or should I say, extreme bungee jumping. Bungee jumping into a massive tropical gorge, from a helicopter to be exact. We must be absolutely fucking crazy! But if you’re going to scare yourself shitless, then better do it good!

The look on Brian’s face was priceless and I hope the camera caught it. AJ didn’t look much better; in fact the pair of them looked ready to puke. Howie seemed kind of cool about it, but that’s Howie. As for the New Kids, well, they weren’t showing any fear.

My hands were sweating and I admit to feeling just a little bit queasy when we saw just how high we were going to have to jump from. I couldn’t back out of it though, I told myself I wasn’t a quitter and I was sticking by what I’d said. People bungee jumped every day, how hard could it be?

Before going any further though, we had a talk with the safety team, we had to know the risks involved and be fully aware of what we were about to do before tackling the challenge. I have to say, the safety team were brilliant and really pumped me up ready to do it. After they’d done with us, I felt ready to take on the world.

“So, the big question is…who wants to go first?” Duncan asked, looking each one of us in the eye before turning back to the camera.

“Guys, I’ll go first and show you how it’s done” replied Danny, eager to get up there. He got harnessed up and off he went, into the helicopter without a trace of fear, a camera strapped to his head to capture the jump, whilst the camera crew on the ground were filming the rest.

“Oh my god, oh my god, I don’t think I can do this” said Brian, watching Danny’s movements on the monitor, and he hadn’t even jumped yet. Brian was a complete bag of nerves, biting his finger nails until there was almost nothing left of them. AJ was chain smoking and muttering every swear word known to man whilst pacing up and down.

“You’ll be fine, they wouldn’t be letting us do it if it wasn’t safe” I said, hoping to ease his fears.

“True” he laughed nervously “but that doesn’t change things”

All eyes turned to Danny as the helicopter took off at speed, with a very calm and collected looking Danny waving to us all. He actually looked as if this was just a walk in the park. Once the helicopter had reached the correct height and position, it was thumbs up for him to jump.

“And here goes. Danny Wood is the first one to take on the challenge. Will he do it? Keep watching to find out!” Duncan did his bit for camera and then looked up into the air, where Danny was on the edge, ready to jump.

“Are you watching this you guys?” he shouted. Obviously we couldn’t hear him from the ground, but we could see and hear him on the monitor and could tell he was pumped up with adrenaline. Next thing we knew he was dangling in the air, loud “woohoo’s” and “fucking awesome’s” could be heard coming from the monitor.

“Wow, now that is scary looking” Duncan said as we all watched Danny dangling by his legs over the gorge. This wasn’t going to be as easy as I’d thought it would be, but I was still up for it.

Danny eventually made it back to where we were waiting “that was fucking awesome guys, you’re gonna love it, who’s up next?”

I looked around to see if anyone was going to volunteer, seeing no one else stepping forward, I offered. To be honest, I just wanted to get it over and done with. I went over to the helicopter to be harnessed up, they asked if I was 100% sure I wanted to go ahead, I suppose they had to make sure before taking people up.

“Yeah, bring it on” I said, my voice not quite as steady as I would’ve liked it to have been.

“OK, here we go” said one of the crew and up we went. I took a few deep breaths to try and calm my nerves. Danny had made it look so easy, but when you’re actually in that situation, it’s not so simple. My palms were sweating and I had to repeatedly wipe them on my overalls. I felt sick too.

We got to the right jumping zone and I was asked to stand up and stand on the edge. “You ready?” I was asked and I gave a thumbs up, next thing I knew I was free falling, my arms out in front of me. I was flying. I was also scared shitless and screaming my head off, but Danny was right, it was fucking awesome. I looked down and all around me, praying that the rope wouldn’t snap or anything like that. I’d be well and truly fucked otherwise. Below me was a fast flowing river and all around me was jungle or something. It was all moving too fast to really take in. I felt like I was never going to stop falling, then all of a sudden I felt a pull and was transported back up in the air, then down again. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. The helicopter lowered me down to safety and I was unclipped from the restraints, my legs felt like jelly as I made my way over to everyone else.

“What did you think? Told you you’d love it didn’t I?” Danny asked, still high from his jump.

“I’m telling you, I fucking loved it, can I go again” I asked, although my legs were still a little shaky and in all honesty, I don’t really think I could’ve done it again, but you know what I mean.

“I’m not sure I can do it” said AJ, trembling slightly and puffing on yet another cigarette.

I walked over to him and placed my hand on his shoulder “It really is OK, you’ll be perfectly safe up there, they know what they’re doing, and if I can do it then I’m sure you can”

“You think?” he asked, looking for reassurance.

“Do you wanna beat the New Kids?” I lowered my voice so none of them would hear.

“At this moment in time, I couldn’t give a fuck” AJ replied “but I guess I’ll have to do it”

“That’s the way!” I slapped him on the back.

Joey was up next. Like Danny, he showed no fear whatsoever. I was beginning to think they were super human or something.

“Fucking awesome man” Joey said as he walked back to where we were all standing.

“Go on, get it over and done with” I whispered to AJ “keep the Backstreet pride alive” and off he went. I was watching him on the monitor and could see how terrified he was, but he did it, he actually jumped. He looked shit scared the whole time and was screaming “fuck” constantly, but he did it.

“I am never doing that again” he said when he finally got his feet on solid ground “I need a cigarette or twenty”

Donnie, Howie and Jordan did the jump no problem. Brian on the other hand was a different matter. After about half an hour of being talked into going up, he did finally go up in the helicopter, muttering prayers the whole time. There was a bit of drama before the jump and we did think he wasn’t going to do it, but he shocked us all and did it. We all cheered him when he came back down.

“Fuck” he said, which was not a word that Brian used very often “Never again”

“Well, fuck that shit. I’m not even going up” Jon announced. There would be no changing his mind either.

We all had a group hug and congratulated each other, then talked about our individual jumps until the sun was beginning to set. We headed back to our hotel via another helicopter, and I had never felt so happy to be back within four walls as I did when we walked through that hotel entrance.