N'gol

From a beach of white, blue-grey and black stones, some the size of emu eggs. Through an idyllic village - neat huts, the scent of woodsmoke, chooks ranging free, a general store with a New Zealand Warriors "try time" poster, western-style marble grave in one front yard. To a steep, grassy slope. At its summit, a 30-metre tower of criss-crossing branches, like a zipper in the sky.

N'gol. Land diving. Bungee jumping with a vine instead of a bungee cord. Not over a river but a patch of raked dirt.

This ancient ritual is enacted between March and June, when the vines are the right balance of strength and elasticity. The same tower is used for the entire period. Before each performance, diving platforms are erected on the structure at points corresponding to body parts. Boys as young as eight may leap from the knees, while only the bravest man will go from the head.

I wait with anticipation from a spot secured by rising at an unreasonable hour - a stumps'n'plank bench in the shade of a thorny, spider-silked lime tree. I silently petition the spirits of Pentecost Island not to let any of their sons die for the tourist dollar.

The diver climbs agilely to his mark. Fellow jumpers help tie the purposely frayed end of the vine to his ankles. It is already bound around the platform. The ground crew - an elder naked save for a penis sheath, carrying a raking stick - checks the vine hasn't become entangled with any others.

The diver steps forward. He raises his hands to acknowledge the crowd. He claps and so do we. A group of males on the hillside begins to dance, sing in unison, whoop and holler. There are echoes of the Maori haka.

The diver sways and prays...then falls gracefully into the sweltering air.

His descent stops when the vine does - two metres shy of the earth. The platform snaps in half by design. His body is jerked so violently I think his back must be broken (mine would be). But the ground crew lifts him to his feet and the diver acknowledges the audience again.

It is the most amazing, gutsiest thing I've seen in my life.