Once over the cast iron bridge and yet another style we found ourselves facing the “red rocks”, as we called them. I mentioned to my friends that I had once fallen 30 feet down from the top, while attempting to climb across the face of the rock. Neil had this look of disbelief and started to laugh saying,
“That’s a bit of a porky init”,
“No word of a lie, the god’s honest true I said” Neil was a joker, at the best of times.
As our destination became closer, we could hear a roaring sound of crashing water hitting the river like a battering ram, getting louder and louder with every stride we took. This was it, the main attraction, jumping off the waterfall into the river. We had all done this before. The first person who tried it, I will admit, must have been crazy, for he did not know whether there were rocks under the river, or whether or not the water was sufficiently deep enough for him to land in, as the fall was over 10 foot.
There was a slight opening through the bushes with a sloping little path. I ventured down, and there it was, a concrete ledge perfectly poised on the edge of the bank overlooking the top of the waterfall. The current was so furious that the water was nearly bursting its own banks. I looked at it in amazement but I thought jumping today was not a good idea. We made our way down to the bottom bank for a better view, where we could see the full breadth and length of the waterfall. I noticed a small red ball, bouncing up and down; stuck between a mighty vortex of pounding water and the riverbed, swirling around, twisting in a rotating motion.
Neil disappeared and then reappeared on the concrete ledge of the top bank. All three of us were shouting, begging him not to jump, Neil was adamant but I could see the hesitation in his body language, as he was about to hurl himself into the abyss. Off he leapt with his face and body vexed with tension. He splashed onto the overspill and down under the river. We all waited with baited breath, his head was surely bound to pop up! But nothing, only the thud of rushing water. Everyone started to panic! I looked round, Steve was hastily removing his coat and shoes shouting, “I’m going in”. Then from out of the blue Paul dived right in there, coat, shoes and all his clothing. I looked down at the water; what lay before my eyes was horror, the mangle of heads, arms and legs spinning round, popping up and down underneath the angry onslaught of the thundering river. I frantically tried to break a large branch off a nearby tree but my actions were in vain. Paul was now in a life threatening position because he was attempting to save Neil. All of a sudden Neil broke free through a whirling current and then emerged, slumped on the side banking, gasping for air. Paul was still underneath but then appeared momentarily after Neil through the same flow of water. They both looked a mess, slouched on the rock in the realization that they nearly lost their lives.
Neil told me that whilst he was being thrown about under the water, he thought he was going to die, having flash thoughts of his family and even his pet dog, and thinking that he would be in all the newspapers, which would be reporting his death. Neil thinks that it was Paul’s head that gave him the leverage to push himself out.