South Africa is one of the best counties in the world for tourists to participate in adventure activities and experience just what being alive is all about. Adventure activities, adventure sports and adventure tours are offered in all regions of South Africa. Choose activities that suit your desires to send your heart racing, your mind reeling and your stomach churning. Your eyes will grow big and round and then, slowly-as you start breathing again-your mouth will spread into the biggest smile possible. Which may explain why adrenalin is so addictive.
There are many superb South African adventure safari travel opportunities; home of the highest bungi jump, tallest mountain and biggest sand dunes - it will therefore come as no surprise that traveling to South Africa is the ideal safari adventure destination seekers. Adventure tours are action packed from day one and you have the opportunity to join in many exciting South African adventure activities throughout your expedition. And that so many people are finding that South Africa is a very affordable adventure destination for their holiday.
11 day South Africa / Mozambique Transfrontier Adventure Tour
This
adventure tour includes cultures and landscapes influenced from the early days
by nomadic tribes, Arab traders, British sailors and Portuguese colonials. Untouched
wilderness areas, natural beauty, deserted beaches, and unique cultural heritage.
Your adventure combines the well-known attraction of the Kruger
National Park, where animals abound, living in their natural environment,
with the recently initiated Transfrontier Peace Park. You will traverse the
entire Mozambique
section, using rough bush tracks, and camping wild at remote, unspoiled, yet
incredibly scenic bush camps. The adventure tour will also visit scenic and
cultural attractions in the former homeland of Venda,
and will spend time at deserted Indian
Ocean beaches.
You end with a night in the capital Maputo,
where you experience the culture, and enjoy the nightlife. A 4x4 expedition
vehicle is used for this 11 day Transfrontier Adventure tour.
12 day Namibian
Adventure Tour
Namibia
is the land of unrelenting sun, where the ground seems to beg the heavens for
rain, and the landscapes stretch uninterrupted for hundreds of kilometres on
end. Where one gazes in wonder and amazement at the animals and plants that
survive in this harsh environment. This tour covers all of the highlights of
central and northern Namibia, but also concentrates on off the beaten track
routes and attractions. Flexibility and an awareness of the elements are essential
in order to get the most out of this tour.
14
day Southern Explorer Adventure Tour
Enjoy game walks, tracking different species and exploring the waterways of
the world renowned Okavango
Swamps. You have the opportunity to meet people of different cultures and
to experience African traditions. The very brave can attempt one of the world's
highest bungy
jumps.
Adventure
Safaris are for people who love life and want to embrace it with passion,
who care about culture, people and wildlife. As this tour is a limited
participation trip, it is very important that travelers have a positive
attitude. Joining in is what turns a great trip into an unforgettable
journey. With the right attitude, its guaranteed that travelers will get
the most out of their African experience.
Every effort is made to follow the intended route of the itinerary in the brochure, however changes sometimes need to be made due to unforeseen circumstances beyond control. This may result in missed areas and activities, diversions, and variations on night stops. Occasional operational uncertainties make it impossible to run adventure trips exactly to the intended itinerary, so when booking a trip you must accept that itineraries may differ from that published.
These trips are designed so that you can choose according to your own particular budget, which excursions you wish to partake in. Any activity marked ‘optional’ will be to the client’s expense. Your guides are able to assist with information of all the options on offer. Enquire
20
day South Africa Explorer Adventure Tour
Experience
a wine tasting, Breede River, Cango Caves, Ostrich farm visit, Natures
Valley, hikes, Tsitsikamma National Park, Addo Elephant Park, Aliwal North
hot springs, Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho, Golden Gate National Park, Royal
Natal National Park, game viewing boat cruise, Zulu cultural experience,
Mlilwane Game Reserve, Kruger National Park, Three Rondawels (huts),
Bourke's Luck, God's Window, Pilgrims Rest, with optional excursions such
as; bungi jumping [216 metre (708.6 feet)], pony trekking, horse riding,
mountain biking, night game drives, gold panning - caves - bushmen art
tour in Pilgrims Rest.
Included will be Cango Caves, Ostrich farm, cultural excursion, boat cruise, all meals, park and entrance fees, tented accommodation. Make friends at the Addo Elephant Park, winelands. Wine tasting de'rigeur when visiting Cape Town, there is no way out of it. Nature's Valley, scenery from the first day of creation. You'll be back! Enquire
1. Fly Through the Trees with the Greatest of Ease
There are only three treetop canopy tours in the world, the newest and longest
of which is in the Tsitsikamma
Forest on the Garden Route. Securely strapped into a climbing harness clipped
onto a strong steel cable strung up between giant trees, you step into the void
and zoom through the forest canopy to the next platform. You can choose to go
fast, in pursuit of that adrenalin rush, or you can slow down and appreciate
the view-it's not often you get to hang suspended 25m above the ground, all
alone in the canopy of an ancient indigenous forest. Some of the slides are
about 80m long and you can let go, spinning slowly, looking down onto a virtually
pristine forest floor covered with tree ferns and mosses. Check out the construction
techniques-the cables are cleverly attached to the trees without causing any
damage whatsoever. There are eight slides and a rather scary, but safe, suspended
walkway.
2. Radical adventure with white
water rafting
There are a dozen great rivers to raft in South Africa, but a few stand out.
Probably the best in terms of scenery, as well as rapids, is the Blyde in Mpumalanga
Province (aptly named, as blyde means "happiness" in Afrikaans). Running
through a dazzlingly beautiful gorge, this deep turquoise-blue river offers
constant action. Commercially-run rapids are graded from 1-5, according to their
difficulty. Here, a few gentle Grade-twos offer a warm up before the action
starts. Some compulsory portages are interspersed with a good sprinkling of
pretty challenging Grade-fours and -fives. Unlike most commercial trips on big
water, you don't do this one in a raft with a guide-the river's too narrow.
So, it's just you and your partner in a two-man raft. Fortunately, accompanying
guides in swift kayaks keep a hawk-eye on their charges. Although this is an
escorted trip, the Blyde is not the best choice for a first rafting excursion.
There are a number of milder options on offer-including a gentler section of
the same river. You can also join an escorted kayak trip on the Blyde and aspiring
kayakers can take a few days to do a white-water course here.
3. Kloofing
adventures
Kloofing (known as "canyoning" elsewhere in the world) is the
art of following a mountain stream down its gorge, or kloof. It usually
involves jumping off high cliffs or sliding down sheer waterfalls. Names
like Suislide and Kamikaze Kanyon give you an idea of what you'd be in
for. Probably the most radical kloof in South Africa is the Mfongosi Gorge
in Zululand. Here you face two near-vertical slides of about 30m and
another gentler slide with an 8m free fall at the bottom (none
compulsory). An old favourite is Suicide Gorge, near Cape Town, which has
a number of jumps over waterfalls into deep pools. Once you've started,
you can't turn back and have no choice but to fling yourself into the void
from about 8m - although you can choose to make it higher. There are a few
tamer options, one of the prettiest of which is the Stormsriver Gorge on
the Garden Route. Enquire
4. Do the World's Highest Bungee
It's official. The Bloukrans
Bridge in the Eastern
Cape Province is the highest commercial bungee jump in the world. There's
nothing difficult about this, but you will need nerves of steel (or at least
a good head for heights) to negotiate the walkway onto the supporting arch of
the bridge, from where you jump. And then there's the jump itself. It's 216m
high. Need we say more? Enquire
5. Skydive Cape Town
Now, in theory, there is very little difference between jumping out of a plane
in one place or another, but only by skydiving in Cape
Town can you have a photo of your jump with Table Mountain in the background.
That may sound like a strange motivation but, if you fancy a picture of yourself
hurtling earthwards to put on your desk or your desktop, you may as well have
an impressive backdrop. First timers can choose between a standard static line
jump (the chute opens automatically), a tandem jump or an accelerated free fall
(AFF) course. The tandem is pretty self-explanatory: you're strapped to an instructor,
who controls the jump. You exit the plane from 3000m and enjoy about half a
minute of free fall. The AFF course starts with a static line jump; then your
second jump is from 3600m, with two instructors holding onto you as you exit
the plane. They stabilise you and then let go, allowing you to experience true
free fall, before veering away to watch you open your chute. The term "fast
track" takes on a new meaning. Enquire
6. Kitesurf Langebaan
If, as a child, you flew those little diamond-shaped things on strings that
required you to run a ten-second hundred metres to launch them, forget everything
you think you know about kites. Modern kites are not only made from high-tech,
brightly coloured materials, they are also awesomely well designed and can generate
enough lift to pick a Springbok rugby forward up off the ground. Head out to
Langebaan Lagoon, about an hour's drive up the West
Coast from Cape Town, and see what can be done with these outrageously fun
toys. You could just fly one, but that's a bit of a waste of all that power.
So sign up for a kitesurfing course. After learning the ground handling, you'll
use the kite like a sail to move yourself across the water, leaving windsurfers
in your wake. Once you've got the hang of that, you can move the kite into "lift"
position and fly high above the waves. While you're up there, you may as well
do a somersault or two to impress the spectators at the coffee shop on the beach.
And when you come back down to earth (well, water), you can utilise that same
lift to give you a soft landing. It isn't actually that easy, but it's worth
learning and at Langebaan you'll get the chance to watch some of the world's
top kitesurfers strutting their stuff. Enquire
7. Paragliding
adventures South Africa
is a fantastic place to learn to paraglide, both because the exchange rate makes
it so affordable and because you can qualify in a short time as the fantastic
weather means very few no-fly days. Learning to fly is all about controlling
your canopy. Once you've mastered that, you're away. Traditionally your first
flight would have been a hop from a sand dune, but many beginners have flown
for up to an hour on their very first launch from Porterville. This site, just
north of Cape Town, offers the unusual combination of thermic cross-country
flying and an easy foot launch, so it's also a great place for experienced pilots
who want to break a few personal records. Another fantastic location is Table
Mountain-one of the great flying sites of the world-but with its tricky cliff
launch and treacherous winds, it's only for very experienced pilots.
8. Abseil adventures off Table
Mountain
When rock climbers have reached the top of a climb, the quickest way down is
to abseil-which is pretty much why this technique was developed. But there are
a number of dedicated abseiling sites in South Africa, so you don't have to
claw your way up a sheer cliff by your fingernails to earn the thrill of abseiling
off. Probably the most spectacular option is Table Mountain. The actual abseil
itself is only about 100m, but you hang out roughly a kilometre above the city.
If you don't have a head for heights, you'll find this pretty stressful, but
the views are awesome. Other scenic options include the Steenbras River Gorge,
the Stormsriver Gorge and Knysna Heads. Wearing a climbing harness, clipped
onto a securely attached rope, you simply walk backwards down the cliff, controlling
your descent down the rope. Once you reach an overhang, you lose contact with
Mother Earth, but if abseiling sounds a bit tame, you could try rap jumping.
The principle's the same, only the rope is attached to the back of the harness
so you get to run down the cliff facing the ground. You can do this at Knysna
Heads and there are a few urban adventure companies offering rap jumping down
buildings.
9. Get Attitude at Altitude
Ever noticed how everything looks different from the air? Well, try upside down.
Squeeze yourself into the passenger seat of a Pitts Special, a Harvard Trainer
or a historic Tiger Moth, and get ready for the ride of your life. After a quick
climb, you'll have a few minutes to enjoy the view before your universe starts
going off kilter. Steel yourself as you dive into a loop and then look towards
the wing as you stay still and the world turns through 360¡. Then try a roll,
hang suspended vertically or fly upside down. You'll never look at the world
the same way again. If money is no object and you really do believe in the adage
"go too fast, fly too high", you could take advantage of the fact
that South Africa is one of the few places in the world where you can fly in
an ex-military supersonic jet. You could skim just on the conservative side
of the sound barrier in a Hawker Hunter or a Buccaneer, trying a few high speed
combat manoeuvres such as rolls, stall turns and loops, perhaps even flying
in formation. Or make like James Bond in a L39 Albatross (as featured in Tomorrow
Never Dies). But while you're about it, you may as well try the full supersonic
bit. Yes, that means flying faster than 1100km/h. Eat your heart out, Chuck
Yeager.
10. Shark
diving adventures
You've dived every coral reef around, explored kelp forests and swum with whale
sharks, dolphins and rays-even dived under ice and in caves. You've done it
all, right? Not quite. It's only in the last few years that local enthusiasts
have started diving what's rapidly becoming known as "the greatest shoal
on earth". Around July, billions of sardines make their way up the east
coast of South Africa, accompanied by huge pods of Common and Bottlenose dolphins,
small groups of Cape fur seals, schools of Copper and other sharks, large game
fish and enormous flocks of Cape gannets, shearwaters, albatrosses and gulls.
Once the shoal reaches the Wild Coast off the Eastern Cape it veers inshore
and stays pretty close to the beach all the way to Durban. It's not an easy
dive-you could spend days at sea and see almost nothing, but if you consistently
go out for about a week, you might strike it lucky. The Common dolphins habitually
herd the smaller fish into a tight bunch called a "baitball" and circle
to keep the captive lunch intact. Other opportunists joining in the feast may
include a few sharks, seals or dive-bombing gannets. It's a real feeding frenzy,
but you should stay just outside the food chain (hopefully). If you'd like to
dive in South Africa but this sounds too hard core, don't worry, there are hundreds
of dive sites, ranging from warm, shallow coral reefs to-well-the sardine run.