Adrenalin Junkie Activities in Gauteng

Addicted to adren­aline and you find your­self in the place of gold? Then you haven't far to look for activ­it­ies that will keep you out of doors under a wide sky and push you to the limit. The gate­way to Africa, Gauteng might be the smal­lest province, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in dazzle and action, par­tic­u­larly when you con­sider that the young Johannesburg is the power­house of Africa.

Not every­one is work­ing and net­work­ing all the time, how­ever, and there is plenty of action activ­ity avail­able if you but look.

One is sel­dom short of some­thing to do in Johannesburg, Pretoria and the sur­rounds. The Cradle of Humankind, the Magalies Meander, lion and nature reserves, beau­ti­ful gar­dens, an ele­phant sanc­tu­ary and two major cit­ies make for a pretty power­ful col­lec­tion of excit­ing alternatives ...

Rapp jump down the side of Sanlam build­ing in Pretoria:
This is a pure adren­aline rush in the heart of the city. Rapp jump­ing comes from the word 'rap­pelling' and was ori­gin­ally developed by the Australians as a deploy­ment tech­nique into jungles and ter­ror­ist and host­age situ­ations. Which is a con­vo­luted way of say­ing that you run head first down a wall / cliff, although it's described as walk­ing down a street, tak­ing the ver­tical rather than the hori­zontal position.

Other people describe it as abseil­ing but with the climb­ing ropes attached to your back rather than to your tummy. Not for the faint hearted!

Contact: Pure Rush on Telephone +27 (0)11 918‑2379.

Bungee swing from the Orlando Towers in Soweto:
Swing between the two cool­ing towers 100 metres above the ground.

The idea is that you ride the lift to the top of the towers and then swing out towards the Orlando Dam between the towers. And you won't have to look far to spot them, the towers hap­pen to be one of the major land­marks of his­tor­ical Soweto.

The free-fall is 40 metres before the pen­du­lum of the rope swing you back up again. (see more info here)

Cntact: The Towers on +27 (0)71 674‑4343 or Office on +27(0)12 345‑5114

Take a bike ride through Soweto:
This is a great way in which to exper­i­ence the sights and sounds of the town­ship of Soweto. Either full or half day tours take you to his­tor­ical sites, to meet the people, eat a local bur­ger or Kota, and have a drink at a she­been. If you're not keen to go by bike, then do the same on foot. (See Tour de Soweto by Bike)

Contact: Telephone +27 (0)11 936‑3444

Sand board on Mount Mayhem:
You may not know this, but Gauteng has tons of sand. Mount Mayhem (an aban­doned mine dump) in Boksburg, just 30 minutes out­side of Jo'burg offers hours of fun. Very sim­ilar to snow­board­ing, sand board­ing neces­sit­ates lurch­ing down a hill of sand full tilt, in much the same way as if it were snow. All you need is a sand board (and even that you can get at Mount Mayhem). Whilst still a fairly new sport in South Africa sand board­ing is fast attract­ing atten­tion. (See Sand board­ing at Mount Mayhem)

Contact: Telephone +27 (0)82 605‑1150

Abseil into the Wonder Cave:
The great thing about hav­ing a World Heritage Site on your door­step, is the myriad ways in which people will find to have fun and attract vis­it­ors to the site. And whilst vis­it­ing a lot of fos­sil­ised old bones might not be your cup of tea, abseil­ing six storeys into the Wonder Cave might be. This huge chasm of stalag­mites and stalac­tites in the Kromdraai Valley, just out­side Johannesburg, is filled with incred­ible sights of nature, and whilst you can walk into the cave, why would you, when you can abseil your way in?

Contact Wild Cave Adventures on +27 (0)11 956‑6197 or +27 (0)82 632‑1718

Cycle the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve:
View the 1600 hec­tare reserve on the back of a bike, a pretty novel take on the usual auto­mobile route. The dirt roads allow one to ride past the hippo dam, ostriches, and any num­ber of ante­lope. Fortunately the lion camp is just that, behind bars, so there isn't much chance of your stum­bling upon a lion whilst careen­ing head­long into a puddle.

Skydive Johannesburg with Skyhigh Tandems:
A Tandem sky­dive is a one on one sky­dive where you are attached, with a spe­cial har­ness to an instructor, and there­fore is the quick­est way to exper­i­ence freefall. No train­ing neces­sary, you are simply attached by a spe­cial har­ness to a qual­i­fied tan­dem master!(More info see Skydive Johannesburg).

Contact: +27 (0)11 350‑5566 or +27 (0)76 055‑7273

Useful Links:
For more adven­ture options in Gauteng  see the fol­low­ing:
Extreme Adventure in Gauteng
Sports and Leisure in Gauteng
Gauteng Hiking Trails

If none of the above options appeal or are per­haps just too extreme for you, see Things to Do in Gauteng where you will find many adven­ture options ran­ging from Bbungee jump­ing, scenic flights, hikes and walks, horse rid­ing … and plenty more options to keep you occu­pied for weeks on end … Enjoy! And book your Gauteng accom­mod­a­tion via SA-Venues.com – No com­mis­sions, no ser­vice fees – you Deal Direct and Save!