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Shruti's Sky Dive @ Old Sarum
Finally the day had arrived when Shruti was going to dive from a jet plane from 10000 feet above ground level. She was going to do it to raise funds for CLIC sargent to help children and young people with cancer. It was about a 1.5 hours drive from our house in Hounslow west in south west London. I got a printout of the directions from Google maps - Hounslow to Old Sarum. We didn't use it though as 99% of the way was shown correctly by the maps app on my HTC Android phone. We found the remaining 1% from the map provided by the CLIC guys. As we parked the car, we saw lush green fields and very beautiful land scapes. Loads of jet planes with various sizes and shapes were lined up. I took many pics of the landscapes, people, planes and us. Shruti quickly got herself registered and also attended a training session. Then we ate something in the only cafe there. There was nice stuff like chicken curry and rice, fried fish n chips, pastries, burgers and other stuff. While eating inside the cafe, I saw people pointing towards something. I went out to see what's going on and tried to see towards the direction in which they were pointing but couldn't see anything. After sometime, I could see very tiny parachutes in the sky. I was quite thrilled and shot a small video of people jumping from a jetplane with their parachutes and then gradually landing on on the ground. It was really amazing. After sometime the lady who was calling out names of those people who were supposed to jump next, called out Shruti's name as well. She was taken in a car with other divers to the far end of the runway where the jet plane was already ready. Somewhere there they all got dressed up like pilots in blue. Then we saw them entering the jet plane. Quickly after they got in, the jet plane took off. We were waiting for the jet plane to complete the semicircle and come in front of us. But it was hard to spot it as it was flying on a very high altitude compared to the other jet planes and moreover, it was a bit cloudy that day. However we could hear a sound coming from the path of the semicircle. After sometime, some people seemed to have spotted the plane and the divers. As we looked in the direction where they pointed, we also spotted the divers. As far as I remembered, there were 3 girls and 1 old man who entered the car before departing to the plane. However we could spot 8 parachutes. I came to know later that for every diver, there was a photographer as well that jumped along with his / her corresponding diver ! I think if you had to buy the CDs and photographs of your dive, you would have to pay 150 pounds. Shruti bought the CD, as it was once in a lifetime thing. I haven't done this thing. However, after seeing the excitement which Shruti went through, I would recommend you guys to do it al least once in your lifetime.
