Adrenalin Junkie Activities in the North West

The North West Province is the play­ground of Gauteng, an out­door adven­ture wait­ing to hap­pen. So close to Gauteng it is vir­tu­ally on its door­step, it is regarded as out­doors coun­try with a cli­mate to match, and often described in terms of its flat­ness, smat­ter­ing of trees and grass­lands — it's the nat­ural hab­itat of the black and white rhino.

But the stars of the province are undoubtedly the Magaliesberg and the Pilanesberg Game Reserve, which boasts lion, leo­pard, black and white rhino, ele­phant and buf­falo. And there are also dams, rivers, cliff faces and plenty of sun­shine just await­ing discovery.

Hartbeespoort Dam alone is one of the major reas­ons Gautengers leave their province every week­end to while away time on its shores in a myriad of water sports, or head off for the week­end to the Madikwe Game Reserve for a taste of the Limpopo closer to home, without the fear of mal­aria. Bordered by Botswana to the north, the North West is brim­ming with out­door activ­it­ies that include hik­ing trails, moun­tain bik­ing trails, white water raft­ing, abseil­ing, fish­ing and any other type of 'to do' you can think of under the sun.

Hot air bal­loon­ing over the Magaliesberg:
Whilst this doesn't call for much overt exer­sion, a breath­tak­ing ascent and float over the beau­ti­ful Magaliesberg non­ethe­less does get the blood pump­ing, par­tic­u­larly if you're on the flight at sun­rise fol­lowed by cham­pagne and a full English breakfast.

The North West in par­tic­u­lar has some of the most per­fect cli­matic con­di­tions for the flight, as wind is one of the major reas­ons flights are can­celled, and why the Cape is not really the place for hot air bal­loons! But it is the inspir­ing aer­ial views and the incred­ible sen­sa­tion of float­ing that make this such a winner!

Contact: Click here to view Hot Air Ballooning in the North West Province for vari­ous operators.

Magaliesberg tree-top can­opy tour:
This will get the blood pump­ing. Swing from tree to tree, or rather from plat­form to plat­form, in amongs the cliffs and rock faces of the Ysterhout Kloof in the Magaliesberg just behind the Sparkling Waters Hotel.

Eleven plat­forms have been rigged against the cliffs and joined by long steel cables, along which you get to zig­zag – some­thing like a 'foe­fie' slide.

The thrill is unbeat­able, and the envir­on­ment par­tic­u­larly beautiful.

Contact:
Magaliesberg Canopy Tour on +27 (0)14 535‑0150.

Ride on the back of ele­phants in the Pilanesberg:
Seated high on the back of the 'king of the beasts' whilst explor­ing the Pilanesberg is one of the most excit­ing and ori­ginal ways to see the game reserve. Most of these beau­ti­ful beasts are orphans saved from the fate of life in zoos or cir­cuses around the world.

It's a magic exper­i­ence at sun­rise, mid-morning or sun­set, or hey, if you want to you can walk with the entire herd on your own, budget providing!

Contact: +27 (0)83 382‑5905 or +27 (0)14 552‑5020.

Horse rid­ing trails at Sun City:
Not all of Sun City is man­i­cured and built up, a great deal of it is dense, rugged bushveld and for this reason mead­er­ing through its indi­gen­ous forests on horse back is a won­der­ful way to see small game and exper­i­ence the bush first hand. Riding on horse back through the African land­scape is ser­i­ously get­ting back to nature.

Contact: Gametrackers BOP on +27 (0)14 552‑5020.

Paragliding at Hartbeespoort Dam:
One of the bet­ter known sites close to Johannesburg from which to paraglide or hanglide, is Hartbeespoort Dam. The site is easy to get to – there is a cable­way, so get­ting up the 350 metre high ridge is not dif­fi­cult — and the views from here across the dam are fantastic.

North West is paraglid­ing heaven, even if it is con­sidered an 'extreme' sport – but for those who exper­i­ence anxi­ety or ver­tigo, one can always opt for a tan­dem flight the first time around, just to get a feel for it.

This part of the world, par­tic­u­larly in sum­mer, has huge thermals and cross-country flights are very pop­u­lar, provided you remain within the ceil­ing of 720 metres above take-off as this is the con­trolled air space of Oliver Thambo.

Go scuba diving in Brits:
Do the unex­pec­ted and go scuba diving with indi­gen­ous fresh­wa­ter fish at the foot of the Magaliesberg Mountains.

One of the least anti­cip­ated action activ­it­ies for the North West, non­ethe­less you can swim just below these beau­ti­ful moun­tains whilst tak­ing part in recre­ational diving. It's fun for the whole fam­ily and caters for both inex­per­i­enced and exper­i­enced divers.

Contact: Miracle Waters Scuba Resort on +27 (0)12 252‑2142.

Useful Links:
For more adven­ture activ­it­ies visit our sec­tion on Things to Do in the North West Province. There is plenty to do that will get the adren­aline pump­ing includ­ing kloof­ing, moun­tain­eer­ing, scenic flights ... and lots more. To book u=your accom­mod­a­tion in the North browse the options at Accommodation in North West Province. Save money by deal­ing dir­ect with accom­mod­a­tion pro­viders — no ser­vice fees, no commission.