Hey All – It’s good to be back with you again. I’m thrilled to report that Nick is home after 22 days in Abu Dhabi. We missed him immensely but were so proud of the amazing work he was doing—getting Afghan refugees on planes to America! It was a powerful experience and I am so grateful that Mission India supported him in going.
Nick has been apart from Nia and I as long as two months before. Typically I’m the one doing the leaving though and we have the benefit of being distracted by friends and family in the U.S. This time we were at home in our normal routine and it felt soooo weird without him here. Our coping strategy was to go away for 6 days (about a week after he left). This would get us over the halfway point and give us something to look forward to. So off we went to Mahabaleshwar. It proved to be so much fun, in fact, that we decided to squeeze in one more trip before he got back. This time we invited another dynamic Mom/Daughter combo to join us – Kristen and Eva. Our destination of choice: Jodhpur in marvelous Rajasthan!
I will share some photos over on Facebook soon, but for today’s post I’ll highlight our favorite activity of the trip, which ended up being a big stretch for all of us.
As I was researching for the trip, I came across info about ziplining in Jodhpur. But this wasn’t just any old ziplining. This was ziplining into and out of a 500 year old fort! The same fort, in fact, that is used in the Dark Knight Rises movie!!
I’ve always wanted to zipline but dismissed it immediately since I didn’t think the girls would go for it and their height was right on the bubble of the requirement (4’7†– Nia’s getting tall!). As expected, Nia dismissed it outright—she’s not a fan of adventure sports and doesn’t love heights. I told her to just think about it. No pressure. And I had her watch their promo video. Well lo and behold, the next morning she gets up and tells me she wants to be brave and try it. She tells Eva about it and she said she was on board too. I pulled out the tape measure and they were EXACTLY 4’7†each. I was starting to think this was meant to be but didn’t want to get my hope up too much.
There was some wavering throughout the week so I held off on booking. The night before at 9 PM we all made the decision to go for it and I booked tickets for 9:30 AM the next morning. The operation we used was called Flying Fox. We showed up at 9 AM Saturday morning and trekked through Mehrangarh Fort to locate the starting point of the course. There was a heady mix of excitement and nerves running through the group.
We got outfitted in our harnesses and gloves and started out on a practice course. I think we all were grateful to practice a few times before getting up on the real thing! After everyone had their fill of practice, we journeyed up to the 1st of our 6 ziplines. The view was stunning, a top-level view of the Fort with a sea of blue houses surrounding it (that’s how Jodhpur gets its nickname The Blue City). Here was the view we had when standing on the first launching platform:
The first zipline was one of the shorter ones (so grateful to ease in!). The girls opted to go first, then Kristen, then me. Off they zipped and suddenly it was my turn. My heart was pounding as I stepped up to the platform. Sure, I’d been wanting to do this forever, but actually being up hundreds of feet in the air getting clipped to the line was slightly terrifying. But then I rationed – hell, if my daughter can do it, so an I! So I just shut off my brain and told the guide to push me off.
And what a thrill it was! I loved the feel of the wind rushing through my hair and was comforted by the secure hold the harness had on me. I felt so very alive in that moment! It was over within seconds as I careened into the ending platform. Definitely needed to work a bit more on my stopping… :)
Between the warm-ups and the 6 ziplines, the course took us about 90 minutes. The girls fell in love with it more and more each zip. The Moms were enjoying themselves too.
Nia has a tendency to get paralyzed by her fears. I can’t tell you how proud I was of her for stretching out of her comfort zone. I definitely think having a friend there for support helped. Either way, it was a big boost for her confidence. I hope we see her take more risks like this!
The dramatic views and adrenaline rush are something that neither of us will forget. So grateful for this amazing life and the unique opportunities it affords me. And if you have the opportunity to go to Jodhpur – do it! It’s our favorite city we’ve visited in India thus far!
Oops! I got so into my zipline writing that I forgot I had promised a bidding update. It’s just a tiny one, so don’t get too excited. Here goes…
Nick has completed his interviews. We bid on 6 places – 3 in Europe and 3 in Asia. We are feeling optimistic that we’ll get an offer from one of them (although one can never be too sure!). We should hear something by Monday, November 1st. Rest assured that I will update you as soon as possible! Thanks for all the support during this stressful process. Will be glad to be done with it for another few years.
