FLORENCE MACKINNON<br/><br/>If you had told me to imagine the most exhilarating sensation I would have thought of things like relaxing in front of a roaring fire, or driving a Triumph 750 around corners much faster that you should dare, or of biting into the finest Swiss chocolate. I would never have dreamed in a million years of telling you about throwing yourself out of an aeroplane and hanging from a parachute.<br/><br/>After the initial mad rush of air and scariness and then the<em>whump!</em>of the silk opening and being yanked backwards much too hard so that I made a surprised<strong>"Ooof!"</strong>I hung there and simply marvelled at the world around me. It wasn't just below that was beautiful but the sky up here too, so clear and wide and<em>high</em>. Astonishing to be true!<br/><br/>But below my dangling legs which I found fun to wiggle about was something that soon grabbed my entire attention. Gone was the flat farmland with it's regular man-made boundaries, the sweep of roads and railway lines and the lights of buildings. Instead I was hanging over a different place, quite extraordinarily different. On one hand a wide flat rolling savannah stretched away and on the other a deep dark rich forest of towering trees that looked denser than any Amazonian jungle. Way off to one side in the purple distance were huge mountains and I was trying to work out which ones these were (surely not the Alps, nor the Himalayas, the peak shapes were all wrong) when I became aware of the ground rushing up towards me somewhat worryingly!<br/><br/>With another muffled<strong>"Ooof!"</strong>and a roll over I found myself lying on my back quite near the trees. I knelt up and got untangled from a spider's web of lines and then unbuckled the harness that had done quite a good job of slicing me in half near my unmentionables. I shrugged the straps off and stood up to gratefully see familiar faces near the trees. Gathering my parachute up into a saggy bundle I trotted over, a big grin on my face.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">"Who are vee missing?"</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>A German voice asked as I arrived,<strong>"Not me! All present and correct chaps!"</strong>I beamed.<br/><br/><strong>"Good heavens! That was fun! Are we all here?"</strong>I dumped the silk at my feet and checked that my pack was still secure.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">"I can't believe it worked! What do you think, ladies and gentlemen? Our Doctor Hainic has authored a scientific revolution, and we are the pioneers of the newest frontier."</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><strong>"Absolutely I say!"</strong>I replied to Muir,<strong>"And astounding fun to boot don't you know! But speaking of Hainic, where is he?"</strong><br/><br/>I turned to the fellow who was Hainic's assistant,<strong>"Have you seen him young man?"</strong><br/><br/>As I struggled to get my legs back I busied myself with a small distraction. I never smoke the dratted things but I do like to have something in my fingers to idly amuse myself with. I pulled out a Havana (only slightly bent) and twiddled it about then stuck it in my mouth to give it a comfortable chew.