Troy and I were in agreement that I had to go next before my nerve deserted me entirely, so I stepped up to the bottom of the steps. My harness (all three buckles), my gloves and my helmet were checked. The brake and the rope were attached, and I held the rope loosely (possibly…).

Troy checked the previous person was out of the way and then it was time for me to walk up the stairs.

I did that kind of mindlessly, and then when I got to the top I realised I was not going to be able to proceed.

There was no way I was going to be able to even sit on the edge, and go over? No chance!

I told Troy I was sorry, but I could not proceed. He told me to take my time, and I think I tried to explain that I didn’t need time, I was not able to do it. What I actually said may or may not have resembled that! Troy was the epitome of patience. I had time.

Then he deployed his masterstroke (he told us later that he had studied neuroscience) and asked me what story I wanted to be telling in an hour – that I walked down the wall or that I didn’t walk down the wall. Troy was unaware that I had written a blog committing to jumping, that I was going to have to tell a public story one way or the other, but that question apparently made me think about the future and took my brain out of its hijacked state.

I decided that I did want to proceed after all. So slowly I put my left leg over the wall, sat down and then (with Troy’s help) put my right leg over.

At this stage terror was again my main emotion. I was sitting on a wall 7 stories above the ground, attached to a rope and Troy’s hand on my harness. And I was going forward, not back to the safety of the roof.

And forward I went. As I went off the wall Troy made sure I was in control and I was off. Walking down the wall!

That felt amazing!! I was walking down a 7 story building, loosely holding a rope. I thought (and possibly yelled) “I am so glad I did this”. I could feel my grin.

Near the bottom I stopped on instruction and tried to jump towards my catcher (Troy’s son). He helped me the final few metres and unhooked the rope.

Then I sat down, quite suddenly I think. I was pleasantly surprised how easily the cross legged position was to get into!

Those who had gone before me were full of compliments and reassurance. They were unaware of the delay at the top as they could only see once I sat on the wall!

Apparently, my technique was pretty good.

This story does not end here! Come back tomorrow for jumps 2 and 3 where they upped the ante…

After a bunch of introductions, paperwork checks, exchanges of stories (2 people only found out what they were doing when they arrived!), and late arrivals we headed up to the roof of the 7-story building.

Troy was our main instructor, with 2 people working with him (I know they were Troy’s son and a person on their first day but sadly their names didn’t stick in my overwhelmed brain!), and he delivered our safety instructions as well as some history of rap jumping. I think SAS was mentioned? I do recall that it allowed our armed forces to shoot as they rappelled rather than be vulnerable going down backwards. And it was known around the world as the ‘Aussie Rappell’.

There were white lines painted on the roof, a set of 4ish black wooden steps leading up to the wall on the edge of the roof. A single rope was thrown over the edge of the roof, attached to a frame in the concrete. We were told where we could and could not stand without specific direction (the purpose of the white lines) and then sent over to the row of 9 harnesses.

I hesitated physically for the first time as they showed us how to step into the harness. Once I had it on this would be real. Was I really going to go down from this roof face first attached to a single rope? I decided I was willing to commit to wearing the harness, but must have had that terrified look still as the person helping me tighten the three buckles checked in on how I was feeling. I think my response was ‘sick’. And not in a youthful ‘this is awesome’ way. He warned me that as I came down the wall the harness may press on my stomach so to be aware of that. Luckily the ‘sick’ feeling was more in my head than my belly.

Next we put on out helmets and gloves then lined up parallel to the rope. You would think the mention of how many tonnes the rope could support would reassure me… but it didn’t help much to be honest! At the question ‘who is the most nervous’ I was happy to put up my hand. I doubted anyone else was more scared.

The benefit of being the most nervous was that I was the one who got to test the braking mechanism – hold the rope to brake, let it slide to go – while leaning forward at 45 degrees on the safety of the roof. It held me easily – and even walking forward without it ‘braked’ was an effort.

It was shortly after this that it was time to start. We had a demonstration, it looked easy, but I doubted it was! Walk up the steps, put your left leg over the wall, sit on the wall, put your right leg over, lean forward, walk down the wall. Simple right?

Unlike my willingness to volunteer to be the most nervous, I did not volunteer to be first down the wall! Luckily a few people went before me, but then, by mutual agreement between myself and Troy it was my turn. So up I walked, with shaking knees, to take my turn.

To be continued.