See the forest from above — Karkloof canopy tours

A few weeks ago we booked to go zip lin­ing through the trees in the Karkloof Valley of the Natal Midlands.  As opposed to the rainy and cold two or three days we’d already spent in the Midlands, the day of our out­ing was sunny and gor­geous – per­fect to enjoy the spec­tac­u­lar scenery this area has to offer.

Canopy tours ori­gin­ated in the rain­forests for Costa Rica where bio­lo­gists, hungry to study the diversity of animal life in the upper can­opy level of forests devised a sys­tem of cables and plat­forms enabling them to explore this pre­vi­ously inac­cess­ible ter­rain.  Before long this had become a pop­u­lar activ­ity draw­ing atten­tion to the plight and beauty of indi­gen­ous forests the world over ...

Our tour began with a safety brief­ing, the sign­ing of an indem­nity form and then, finally we were kit­ted out in very sexy look­ing har­nesses, hel­mets and thick, pro­tect­ive gloves.  After this we jumped into a Landcruiser and were driven to the start­ing point of the adventure!

Once on the first plat­form, our guide explained how to slow one’s self down – thank good­ness for the gloves because your right hand needs to be on the cable at all times; pulling down gently on the cable will slow one down and if one pulls too hard one will come to a com­plete stop – not ideal if one comes to a stop between plat­forms because one then needs to turn around and pull one­self onto the next plat­form!  The first cable was pretty short, approx­im­ately 30 metres; just enough to prac­tice slow­ing down and get­ting into the swing of things if you excuse the pun!

Each group has two guides, a lead guide and a fol­low guide – the lead guide obvi­ously goes first and is there­fore on the plat­form to meet you, and the fol­low guide waits behind with the rest of the party, ensur­ing every­one is always clipped onto the safety cable, explain­ing the next stretch of cable and where to slow down if need be and then ensur­ing every­one gets off the plat­form safely.

Each of the seven plat­forms offers a dif­fer­ent view, whether it’s of the water­fall (where the Karkloof Canopy Tours staff have clev­erly placed a pipe allow­ing every­one to have a cool drink of fresh moun­tain water), the beau­ti­ful sur­round­ing forest, the vis­tas of the rolling farm­lands of the Midlands or the forest stream far below.  The forest here is home to a vari­ety of birds; Emerald Cuckoos, Knysna Loeries, the endangered Cape Parrot and the elu­sive Narina Trogon so keep your eyes open for all of them!

Of the eight slides, the longest is 170m and the entire tour should take between 2 and 3 hours depend­ing on the size of your party.  Once you have reached the last plat­form there is a short walk back to the Karkloof Canopy Tour offices, where if you have ordered prior to leav­ing, lunch will be wait­ing for you.

This is such a fun thing to do – we enjoyed every second of it and highly recom­mend it.  The views alone are worth see­ing and the feel­ing of zip­ping through the trees is wonderful!

So next time you are in Karkloof remem­ber to see the forest from above!

Useful Links:
Karkloof Canopy Tours
Karkloof Attractions
Karkloof Accommodation
Natal Midlands Accommodation