South Africa just isn’t for softies

One of the worst days of my life turned out to be one of my best experiences in Cape Town, South Africa.
I’d just gotten over the flu, and after 4 days lying half-comatose in bed, I was ready to get out. Outdoors, in fact. Although “outdoorsy” or “athletic” are two adjectives you will never use to describe me, I had zealously signed my name up to go canyoning with friends after deciding I needed some fresh air and an activity that would take me far from my humid bedroom. I might have still been slightly delirious with fever when I signed my name, as I soon came to realize, but at 6:30 a.m. one February morning, I enthusiastically ran downstairs, hair in pigtails and New Balance sneakers on my feet.

Canyoning, or abseiling as South Africans call it, is basically an activity where you have a harness around your waist and a rope clipped to that harness. You are then lowered down the canyon in a horizontal position, feet against the rock, as you repel yourself downwards, letting out rope as you go. You canyon through beautiful terrain, taking in the scenery as you go, passing waterfalls and trees and streams. It would become my worst nightmare.

We took vans out to a remote patch of farmland, where the company we were with had exclusive rites to a gorgeous area of land. As we traipsed through knee-high grass, I half-expected a hobbit to jump out at me at any moment. It was as pristine as the scenery in “Lord of the Rings” - lush green trees, a clear blue sky, and purple mountains as our backdrop. As I was appreciating the beauty of the place, I was also beginning to get a bit nervous. I was almost the last person in our line of hikers. “Why are people moving so fast?” I wondered. I thought hiking was just another word for walking. I seemed to be wrong. We then reached a stream, which everyone before me jumped straight into, wading knee deep in THEIR CLOTHES AND SHOES. I started to panic a bit. What was I thinking? I don’t even like the outdoors that much. How could I have thought this was a good idea? Scott, the owner of the canyoning company and a very fit, outdoorsy looking guy with blonde hair and a patch of beard, was bringing up the rear behind me. I stood atop a rock and looked at him.

“Um, do we HAVE to get in the water?” I asked. “I really hate wearing wet shoes.”

He looked at me incredulously. “Well, how else do you propose you get to the canyon?”

I began looking out through the bush, trying to come up with an alternate route when….SPLASH! Scott just threw me straight in. I tried not to whimper from the cold, or my wet socks squishing against my wet sneakers…I even tried to smile at Scott to show that I, Jennifer Green, was an outdoorsy girl who didn’t mind wading through icy water amongst trees and weird bugs. I mean, this was FUN, right?

When we reached the first canyon, I looked out and almost died. It was the smallest canyon, at about a 70 foot drop. I started wringing my hands and the rest of the group could see I was nervous. They decided it would be best for me to be one of the first to go - to see “that it’s really not that bad,” they said. So someone attached a rope to my harness and then began to lower me down the side of the canyon.

Two minutes later, I really started to panic. I felt like I was hanging in mid-air, with no control over where my body went. My chest tightened and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. About five feet down, I lost my footing on the canyon, and dropped…dangling over the side of the canyon in my harness. This is when I started to cry. And hyperventilate. Which did absolutely no good, because the only way out is down, and you have to have your wits about you get there. And I didn’t. I went into panic-mode, crying and slamming my body against the side of the canyon, again and again. When I finally made it to the bottom of the canyon, dirty, wet and bleeding (slightly), I announced, “I don’t think I want to do this anymore!” With a look of sympathy, Scott informed me I didn’t have much choice. We had 5 more descents and about 6 hours to go.

I’m not going to lie, the first couple of hours were rough. I’d totally psyched myself out on the first descent, and even worse was the fact that absolutely everyone else was having a BLAST - repelling down the canyon like pros, swimming in waterfalls and laughing. Why was I the only one having such problems?

During our lunch break, a few guys from the canyoning crew pulled me aside to speak some words of encouragement. You can do this, envision yourself going down the canyon, overcome your fears, blah blah blah. After seeing my vacant look, they began talking about a tandem-drop with one of the crew. But I wouldn’t do it. I figured I’d gone through the worst, and I wanted to finish the day. On my own. With a goddamn smile on my face.

And I did. I ended up dropping over 1200 feet that day, and by the last few descents, I didn’t even cry. And on our last drop, over a beautiful mossy stretch of rock and waterfalls, I managed a smile for the camera at the top. After our long day, we were treated to a large dinner of smoked trout and South African wine. We lay out on the grass outside the farm, staring up at the stars and the full moon, and I couldn’t help but be proud of myself for making it through the day. As Scott later said after giving me a congratulatory hug, “South Africa just isn’t for softies.” And I was happy knowing I wasn’t a softy.

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South Africa - adventure heaven!

You're in adventure heaven now. Whatever your preference, there's bound to be an adventure to keep the adrenalin pumping.

South Africa has some of the best climbing in the world, with Cape Town particularly well endowed. There are literally hundreds of bolted and natural routes on superb quality Cape granite or Table Mountain sandstone within the city limits. There are also climbing schools and mountain guides in all the main centres, and route guides are available from climbing shops.

River trips range from serene and scenic to grade five whitewater washing machines. There are more than a hundred listed paragliding or hang gliding launch sites, and many more less well known, with schools in every centre. Also up in the air are opportunities for helicopter rides, balloon flights, aerobatics, skydiving and microlight flights.

Thousands of kilometres of hiking trails abound countrywide, in desert, forest, mountain or coast; and many have mountain bike trails too. Some hikes are a bit more luxurious - walking from hotel to hotel with someone else carrying your luggage!

There are fabulous, easy horse trails through vineyards, on the beach or in the mountains. For the more adventurous and experienced, there are horseback safaris in big game country.

South Africa is also home to the highest commercial bungee jump in the world (at 216m), as well as lots of pretty abseiling and bridge swinging.

Why not combine adrenalin, tranquility and sheer beauty on the treetop canopy tour in Tsitsikamma?

The art of canyoning - known as kloofing in South Africa - is another hot favourite, with self-guided and escorted trips.

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South Africa Adventure Tours

The adventure starts here

Xtreme Adventures: South Africa Adventure Tours

Let the adventure begin. Whatever your preference, South Africa has all the adventure your adrenalin can handle.

Introduction
South Africa has some of the best rock climbing in the world, with Cape Town particularly well endowed. There are literally hundreds of bolted and natural routes on excellent quality Cape granite or Table Mountain sandstone within the city limits. There are climbing schools and mountain guides in all the main centres, and route guides are available from climbing shops.

River trips range from mostly scenic to grade five whitewater washing machines. There are over a hundred listed paragliding or hang gliding launch sites, and many more less well known, with schools in every centre. Also up in the air, there are many opportunities for helicopter rides, balloon flights, aerobatics, skydiving and microlight flights.

Thousands of kilometres of hiking trails wind around the country, in desert, forest, mountain or coast, and many have mountain bike trails adjacent. Some hikes are a bit more luxurious - you walk from hotel to hotel and have your luggage taken round.

There are wonderful easy horse trails through vineyards, on the beach or in the mountains and, for the adventurous and more experienced, horseback safaris in big game country.

We have the highest commercial bungee jump in the world (at 216 metres), as well as lots of pretty abseiling and bridge swinging.

For something combining adrenalin, peace and tranquility, and sheer beauty, try the treetop canopy tour in Tsitsikamma.

The art of canyoning - known as kloofing in South Africa - is another hot favourite, with self-guided and escorted trips.

Abseiling and rapp jumping
It's only recently that abseiling has become an activity in its own right. Really it's just the method climbers use to get off mountains - or special services forces use to descend deserted buildings into enemy territory in adventure movies - but it's fun, and so it's become available as an activity in its own right.

You can hang out high over Cape Town abseiling from Table Mountain. The "long drop" is 112m high - and about a kilometre above the city - making it the world's highest commercial abseil.

There are three abseil routes on the spectacular western head at Knysna, further up the Cape east coast - including a really high, very exposed site hanging right out over the crashing waves.

Not far from Knysna, and also with fantastic views, you can do a combination abseiling and kloofing (canyoning) trip down the Storms River Gorge, which involves a 100m abseil into the gorge, a tubing trip down the river, a short walk out of the gorge and then a cycle back to the village.

You can abseil down buildings in Durban and Johannesburg, or even rapp jump if you like. Rapp jumping is abseiling with the ropes attached to your back instead of your front, so you go down facing the ground - and at a run, if you're in a hurry.

Bungee jumping

Weehah! South Africa has the highest commercial bungee jump in the world - it's official. At 216 metres, it's not for the faint of heart.

Run by Face Adrenalin, the Bloukrans is on the border of the Eastern and Western Cape.

The same company also offers a range of jumps on the much lower Gouritz River Bridge. Here you'll also find South Africa's only commercial bridge swinging operation, run by Wildthing Adventures.

Not sure of difference between bungee jumping and bridge swinging? With bungee, you jump off a bridge (or other high fixed platform) with giant elastic bands usually, but not always, tied to your feet.

Bridge swinging, on the other hand, involves jumping from one bridge while tied in to climbing ropes suspended from an adjacent bridge.

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Extreme Adventure Tours

Shark Cage Diving
The best time of the year to cage dive with white sharks is from April to September. Four to five sharks are usually encountered in a day with as many as 18 sharks having been encountered on some outings. We have a 95% success rate in terms of daily sightings during the high season. Great white sharks prefer a diet of game fish and from May to October the latter are in abundance. Great whites are also known to

Feed on seals. October to December, being the pupping season for some 35,000 seals on Geyser Island, results in an ample food supply of drowned pups in the surrounding coastal waters. Although great whites may be sighted during the low season, the abundance of food in the area makes luring to the boat more difficult.

The water temperature ranges between 55° and 65° F and divers take turns in the cage, each staying approximately 15-20 minutes. A diver can expect to make two to three dives per day if good weather, sea conditions, shark activity and visibility prevails. Visibility is between 4m to 6m on average, but may exceed 15m on a clear day.

Jet Fighter Dream
You will live your jet flight dream over one the world’s true beauty spots, Cape Town , South Africa . You will zoom over the point where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet, climb high above Cape Town's famous Table Mountain, salute Robben Island as you fly up the azure coast washing onto sugar-white beaches.

Combine your Thunder City fighter jet adventure with an unforgettable and diverse holiday in Cape Town – one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Cape Town offers a wealth of excitement, diversity and culture for residents and visitors alike. With everything from adrenaline sports; diving with the Great White shark, big wave surfing, kite surfing, white water rafting, mountaineering, skydiving, hang gliding and absailing. For the more sedate enjoyment you can stroll through Kirstenbosch botanical gardens, go whale watching, see the natural wonderland of the West Coast’s flowers in spring or the traditional and always colourful Cape Minstrels . And visit the amazing array of restaurants, beautiful winelands and just so much more..
You’ll be fitted with a flight suit and helmet, and briefed on its oxygen and communication facilities before being taken through to the pilot’s briefing room, to meet your pilot and undergo emergency and ejector seat training. Depending on the aircraft you have chosen to fly in, you and your pilot will plan your sortie.

Bungy Jumping
This is the ultimate thrill! This IS the highest commercially operated Bungy Jump in the world. We secure you in a full body harness and proceed to walk along a specially designed catwalk (216m long), which is suspended beneath the road surface, which will then lead you to the top of the arch - 216 meters above the Bloukrans River. Here you will be given final instructions by highly experienced staff, a countdown and off you go! Bloukrans utilizes pendulum bungy technology ensuring you the smoothest, most comfortable bungy jump possible.

Flying Fox
This is our NEWEST adventure at Bloukrans! A 200 m cable slide (foofieslide for our South Africans!) out onto the archway of the bridge! The quickest way to get to your bungy jump destination. But if the bungy is not for you this is a great alternative adrenalin rush all on its own. This is a great option for groups and families

Bridge Walking
Bloukrans is the highest and largest bridge in Africa; the third highest in the world and the largest single span concrete arch bridge in the world. It is also the highest Bungee Jump bridge in the world. Come and learn about the incredible engineering feats that went into building this amazing bridge. Walk along a spectacular and specially designed catwalk to the top of the arch from where you look out over the Gorge to the mountains and the sea in the distance. Informative guides will introduce you to the enchantment of this special place. This is the perfect way to watch the live bungy show up close and personal and is an ideal alternative to jumping off! Bloukrans Bungy a Proud Guinness World Record Holder for the Highest Commercial Bungee Jump in the World at 216m!

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Adventure Venture by Lisa de Speville

You’ve seen it on tv – popularised by the dramatic Eco Challenge shows. You’ve been reading the adventure racing calendar comment and listings in Runner’s World. Procrastinate no longer. Welcome to the realm of adventure racing, a dynamic multi-discipline off-road sport.

Frequently people say, “I’m not fit enough”. What is fit? In running there’s 30-min 10km fit and there’s 60-min 10km fit. Ditto for AR. Honestly, in most races you walk more than you run, pushing your bike up a hill is not frowned upon, and for most, except the competitive, experienced teams AR is purely about the journey and getting to the finish.

And race distances range from 25km to over 500km. There is something for everyone – even the most hesitant. Just enter a race and take stock of your skills and abilities afterwards

MULTI-DISCIPLINE
Primary AR disciplines are mountain biking and trekking or hiking. Paddling is common in races over 100km. The area in which the race is held determines the type of water activity, whether it be tubing, river, flat-water or sea kayaking, or white water rafting.
Rope skills are usually incorporated, supervised and assisted by rope professionals. Abseiling features in most events with flying-fox traverses and ascents only in races designed for more experienced competitors.
As for navigation... this is the discipline that defines adventure racing and differentiates it from multisport. Given maps and coordinates of control points and transitions, teams plot their own routes from start to finish.
Best Advice: In a race where the top teams have comparable physical strengths, the winner will ultimately be the one that chooses the best routes and is able to minimise their mistakes. Hone your skills by regularly attending weekend orienteering events.

TEAM MATES
Although most races allow paired and 3-person entries, the ‘classic’ AR format is a 4-person mixed-gender team where at least one racer must be of the opposite gender. It does take a good few months to find your ideal team combination, particularly when forming a 4-person team for multi-day events.
Team dynamics are crucial and result not only in a successful race, but also in a happy, memorable experience.
Best Advice: It is not advisable to enter multi-day races with your spouse, partner or long-term friends... if you want the relationship to continue after the race. Gain some racing and team experience first.

SUPPORT CREW
Most events are assisted, with support crews of kind friends or family members who transport equipment to designated transitions, prepare food for their team and administer much-appreciated moral and emotional support. Their job is to feed you, warm you, encourage you and then send you out into the cold darkness with a pat on your back and motivating applause.
Best Advice: Support crew volunteers are precious angels. Treat them like gold, cover their expenses for the event and don’t leave your smelly socks lying around for them to pick up.

GEAR
Adventure racers love toys. Basics include a backpack (a 30l capacity will get you through everything), hydration system (a 2l water reservoir is adequate), trail shoes, socks, shorts, moisture-wicking top, cap, shades, mountain bike (with spare tubes, pump and basic repair tools) and helmet. As you advance, gear requirements and costs escalate.
Best Advice: Start off with a short summer race ((maximum of 6-8hr) as they require minimal gear. Then, steadily add to your toy-box with each event. Within a few years you’ll have a collection to be proud of.

ADVENTURE RACING CLUBS
There are established clubs in Joburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban/Pietermaritzburg, Bloemfontein, George & Krugersdrop. They all have monthly social meetings – a perfect environment to meet, mingle and ask questions. Visit www.ar.co.za.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW
www.ar.co.za is South Africa’s adventure racing website. Visit the calendar to select races, read articles on all aspect of adventure racing and experience events through teams’ post-race reports.«

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Extreme Scene

Fun greases Axel’s life

Stephanie Davies

Very few people have mastered the fine art of making a living out of what they enjoy doing most. Axel Zander, founder of an adventure business and snowboarder extraordinaire, is one. Axel's favourite past-time? Playing! And hey, if he can make money out of doing it ... and give others a good time into the bargain ... cool!
Unsurprisingly, a word that comes up often in Axel's conversation is "stoked". This is a man who simply loves life and treats every day as a new adventure. Whether it's sandboarding, snowboarding, mountain biking or surfing, Axel's having fun.

The first time I saw the founder of Downhill Adventures he was scything down a near-vertical wall of sand at close to 80km per hour, heading for a ridge that would launch him into the air. He was grinning. And yelling. This is all in a day’s work for the man and pretty much as near paradise as he gets.

We were at the beginning of a week-end during which Hunters Gold was introducing a bunch of us to three of the extreme sports it sponsors: sandboarding, abseiling and bungee jumping. This is Axel's kind of weekend – when it came to the bungee at Bloukrans (216m of it, please note) most of us used the buckling-knee technique while Axel leapt off yelling something about Superman.

But then, throwing himself into the unknown is not unfamiliar to Axel. After finishing his psychology and communications degree he set off ... to a ski resort in Colorado. It was there that he discovered snowboarding. Later, he set off down the West Coast to the border with Mexico.

Jamaica is a land of rum and hummingbirds; of sweat-shiny writhing bodies. Here Axel was getting closer to the paradise he w as looking for. But Jamaica has no snow.

There is snow in Austria. And snowboards. And people to teach snowboarding. Axel was in one of his many elements.
And it can also be lucrative. Axel's looks, chutzpah and snowboarding style began to attract offers of commercial and photographic work (it's Axel flying across the cover of the German coffee-table book Fascination Snowboarding by Peter Mathis and Christoph Murr).

But still paradise did the elusive rainbow thing. He nearly found it on the little island of Utila, off Honduras, where he and his brother honed in on the coolest scuba-diving outfit and organised themselves two free dives a day (no prizes for guessing how) while, South Africans to the essence, running fish braais to make ends meet. But the idyll was shattered by violence when a fight broke out between two of the locals – over a girl, predictably - and one gunned the other down.
It was time to move on, and Axel, never one for the easy route, found himself in a Venezuelan village on the Rio Orinoco, hitching rides down the Amazon from the Yanomami Indians in dugouts. "If I had known what I was getting into," he says, "I would never have done it. Thank God I didn't know ... thank God I survived."
But he did make it. Albeit as a completely changed person. Sometime between fighting off hypothermia, mosquito’s, and fear, it had occurred to him that you don't find paradise in the jungle, or the tropics, or on the ski slopes or rivers.
You make your own paradise.

Cape Town – where there are mountains to bike on, sea to surf in and sand dunes to board on – and snow not so very far away: Tiffindel, on the Lesotho/South African border, where Axel implemented the first snowboarding facility. And that's when he started Downhill Adventures. And so the adventurer found paradise where he left it five years before…. at home.

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S.A. Extreme Sport How To's: Adventure Racing

By Jacques Marais You might be brave enough to watch Eco-Challenge on television, but are you ready to take on a multi-sport endurance event yourself? Imagine five (or maybe more) days of non-stop racing, facing extreme temperatures and gruelling terrain on just a couple of hours’ sleep. Only human-powered propulsion is allowed, and your team must get from start to finish by paddling canoes, riding bikes, climbing mountains, abseiling down cliffs or rafting white-water rapids. Still keen? MAIN EVENTS: Adventure racing events range from 2-hour sprint and half-day short course races to week-long expedition events. If you have no AR experience, the best way to get into the sport is by starting off with sprints, thus allowing you to get a feel for the multi-disciplinary nature of the sport. If you’re in the Western Cape, enter the Quantum Adventures Sprint Series. These 2-3 hour races consist of 20km mountainbiking, a 5km trail run and a water discipline (which could be anything from a swim or tube to a kloof scramble). Your next AR step could be a Quantum Adventures Challenge, a short course race covering between 40-60km and taking up to 8hrs to complete. Once you’ve got a few of these under your belt, get ready for one of the Classics (a weekend race of 36 – 60 hours). The Swazi Xtreme is southern Africa’s longest-running adventure race and definitely gets the athletes’ vote as the most popular AR event on the sub-continent. Expect face-offs with Big Five beasties, major cliff jumps, thornveldt treks and scrambles up rugged peaks. DIY AR: Although you could head off on your own multi-sport adventure, this is a sport which lends itself more to a number of teams competing as part of an organised event. Getting a good team together is only half the fun, because now you have to start budgeting for a whole bunch of new toys! For the shorter races, you’ll need a good pair of trail shoes, base-layer shirt, running shorts, rain-proof shell, hydration backpack, hard-tail bike and helmet. Race organisers usually supply paddling and mountaineering gear, or you will be able to rent these for the more technical races. Once you step up to expedition racing level, the list goes ballistic, and soon you’ll need a 4x4 and off-road trailer to transport all the kayaks, PFDs, paddles, carabiners, ice axes, ropes, crampons and tents ...

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Xtreme Adventures