Adrenalin Junkie Activities in the Garden Route

The Garden Route is treated as a province in its own right there is so much to do and see. It is not only one of the most scenic and pos­sibly most vis­ited parts of South Africa, but the Garden Route is also high on the adven­ture seeker's list of places to visit because of the imme­di­ate access to incred­ible, sel­dom over-explored nooks and cran­nies on beaches, forests and mountains.

The Garden Route is described as a 'secret place' and for many it is just that. This slender stretch of coast man­ages to remain wild and some­thing of a garden of Eden with infin­ite for­es­ted areas, rivers that tumble from moun­tains to wild rocky beaches that refuse to con­form to the 'expec­ted' sed­ate, to-be-tanned-on expanses so many prefer.

From extreme adven­ture day trips to mildly adven­tur­ous, pur­su­ing an adren­aline rush takes on new pro­por­tions in the Garden Route ... Lying between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth (that's the rough ver­sion any­how, actu­ally its offi­cial bound­ar­ies keep swell­ing as more and more of the little towns situ­ated along this route add them­selves and their undis­covered secrets) the Garden Route offers spec­tac­u­lar nat­ural beauty and out­door adventures.

Bungy jump off the highest jump in the world:
You're spoilt for choice here as you can choose between the Bloukrans bridge – the highest com­mer­cially oper­ated bungy jump in the world – and the Gouritz bridge. The 216 metre jump from Bloukrans bridge lies about 40 kilo­metres east of Plettenberg Bay on the N2 high­way off a span arch bridge.

This is the ulti­mate thrill for those after adren­aline highs off the top of the arch above the Bloukrans River. For those after some­thing slightly dif­fer­ent, the new­est gizmo is a 200 metre cable slide (foe­fie slides for South Africans), known as the 'fly­ing fox', for those not up to the bungy jump or those want­ing to do some­thing as part of a group.

The Gouritz Bungy jump is tame by com­par­ison at 65 metres, but no less of a fall for those seek­ing adven­ture. It is a great intro­duc­tion for those who haven't done this before. The bridge lies over the Gouritz River about 35 kilo­metres west of Mossel Bay along the N2.

Contact Face Adrenaline for Bloukrans Bungy on +27 (0)42 281‑1458 or Gouritz Bungy & Bridgeswing on +27 (0)44 697‑7001. Both are open daily from 09h00 to 17h00.

Abseiling and black­wa­ter tubing at Storms River:
Storms River mouth is one of the most beau­ti­ful parts of the Garden Route. You are sur­roun­ded by nat­ural forest with some of the world's biggest trees, some of them thou­sands of years old, moun­tains and mag­ni­fi­cent fyn­bos – all wrapped in one.  It's also one of the ultiimate kloof­ing exper­i­ences and abseil­ing here is an all time high. Abseiling here is a com­bin­a­tion of rope lad­ders and rap­pelling down over 30 metres of solid cliff face – you can't do much bet­ter, and there is incred­ible scenery to boot!

The Tsitsikamma, which means 'place of many waters' aptly describes the exhil­ar­a­tion of float­ing down Storms River on rub­ber rings, called black water tubing (the 'black' describes the col­our of the water rather than the black rings) all the way to the river mouth. While this might seem chilled, there are sec­tions where you float down the gorge sur­roun­ded by 100 foot cliffs, and there are a couple of jumps into the gorge along the way that take a bit of nerve to carry out. But the worst part is the begin­ning when you climb down to the start­ing point.

Contact Djembe Backpackers on +27 (0) 42 281‑1842
or Mild2Wild Adventure Centre on +27 (0)42 281‑1051 or +27 (0) 84 877 7100

Quad bike the Garden Route:
You need no exper­i­ence to wind through moun­tain ter­rain on a quad bike and tours can range from 3 kilo­metres to two day quad adven­tures that cross all types of ter­rain – flat, hilly, grassy, rocky, muddy and rough. There are even quad rides at night for the noc­turn­ally adventurous!

Contact: Quad Garden Route on +27 (0)72 303‑9011.

Paraglide in the Wilderness:
Lying between Kaaimans River and the Goukamma Nature Reserve, the Wilderness is a beau­ti­ful area with vast stretches of beach, a huge pla­cid lagoon and incred­ible tran­quil­lity. Paragliding here is an exper­i­ence, and there are around 24 dif­fer­ent fly­ing sites eas­ily within an hour's drive of the little Wilderness village.

Contact Cloudbase Paragliding on +27 (0)44 877‑1414 or +27 (0)82 777‑8474.

Skydive in Mossel Bay:
Skydive Mossel Bay offers you the exper­i­ence of a life­time! Do a tan­dem sky­dive from 10 000ft strapped to an exper­i­enced tan­dem instructor and enjoy the thrill of free fall on your 1^st jump! No exper­i­ence required.

After a short brief­ing we strap you into a tan­dem har­ness and you are ready start your adven­ture. 1^st, we ascent to alti­tude in the air­craft and for 20 minutes you get a fant­astic scenic flight over the bay area. Then it’s time to jump out!

Before you know it, the tan­dem mas­ter has you out of the air­craft and in free fall. We'll free fall at 200 — 290 kph for up to 40 seconds. While we "Body Surf" the wind, we can do con­trolled turns, speed diving, and burn up the sky.

Contact Skydive Mossel Bay on +27 (0)82 824‑8599.

Go cav­ing in the Cango Caves:
Set in the heart of the Little Karoo, just over the Outeniqua Mountains from George, might sound like a tame visit and admit­tedly they are one of the best known and most vis­ited tour­ist caves. However, there is an extens­ive sys­tem of tun­nels and cham­bers that go on for four kilo­metres or more, even if only a quarter of this is open to vis­it­ors. The 'Adventure Tour' will have your crawl­ing through nar­row pas­sages and climb­ing steep rock form­a­tions with only a few small lights to guide you – trust me, adren­aline pumps when you're in a pas­sage just under 30 cm high!

Contact: There are vari­ous oper­at­ors (See Cango Caves Tours for an oper­ator to assist you) or you can call the Caves dir­ectly on +27 (0)44 272‑7410.

Get close and per­sonal with whales at Plett:
If first-hand encoun­ters with whales from the side of a boat doesn't do it for you, then kayak­ing out in the ocean with noth­ing between you and a whale but your, um, kayak, most cer­tainly will!

Contact: Ocean Adventures on +27 (0)44 533‑4897.

Useful Links:
For more adven­ture options in the Garden Route  see the fol­low­ing:
Extreme Sports in the Garden Route
Sports & Leisure in the Garden Route

If the above options are too extreme or don't appeal to you, see Things to Do in the Garden Route where you will find many options ran­ging from sight see­ing, water sports, hikes and walks, horse rid­ing, cruises, scenic flights … and plenty more options to keep you enter­tained … Enjoy! And don’t for­get, book your Garden Route accom­mod­a­tion via SA-Venues.com – No com­mis­sions, no ser­vice fees – you Deal Direct and Save!