Adventure Sports in Cape Town

Crouching behind a rock with a sting­ing wound on my back that was almost cer­tainly going to bruise, I was hav­ing the most fun I’d had in a long time. I stood up and fired two rounds of high-velocity paint­balls at the approach­ing week­end war­ri­ors. Shouts of pain and frus­tra­tion told me that my pro­jectiles had found their mark. Yes, des­pite Cape Town’s amaz­ing range of wines and pleth­ora of drink­ing spots, adren­alin is in fact the favoured intox­ic­ant for many city-dwellers.

The plen­ti­ful sup­ply of rugged ter­rain and occa­sion­ally even more rugged loc­als means that Cape Town is one of the best adven­ture sports des­tin­a­tions in the world. Paintball is just one of the activ­it­ies where you can get that spe­cial euphoric feel­ing that you only get when doing some­thing slightly dan­ger­ous and maybe a little stupid.

Take for instance moun­tain bik­ing. There are hun­dreds of moun­tain bike trails around the Western Cape to choose from From the more pla­cid eco-ride and fossil-ride tours to more adven­tur­ous cycle trails, there's some­thing for all levels of bik­ing expert­ise. Of course if you just want to ride really fast and pos­sibly fall off your bike there’s plenty of oppor­tun­ity for that too. Mountain bik­ing is a great way to see the nat­ural sur­rounds, test your nav­ig­a­tion skills and get some exercise.

If hurt­ling down pristine white dunes in nature reserves sounds more like your thing then give sand­board­ing a try. You can organ­ize day-trips out to the dunes and have sun-bronzed wild men instruct you in the fine art of stay­ing upright on a glor­i­fied iron-board as it hurtles down a dune. It's almost as fun mas­ter­ing stand­ing up as it is see­ing your friends fall off, but make sure you're feel­ing fit. Remember after every suc­cess­ful sand­board run there's the long walk back up again.

Not for those who were scared when watch­ing Jaws, shark cage diving seems to appeal to the most adrenalin-addicted adven­ture people. It basic­ally con­sists of plunging into cold water while pre­his­toric creatures evolved almost exclus­ively for killing swim around you. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? The truth is – it is! Seeing nature 'red in tooth and claw' so close up is an exhil­ar­at­ing and enlight­en­ing exper­i­ence. You may even be seduced by the guide's insist­ence that sharks are shy and mys­ter­i­ous creatures who just want to be left alone. I, for one, was still glad that there was thick steel between me and those double rows of nat­ural razors.

If even this adrenalin-soaked fun sounds a little passé to you, then per­haps you're one of those people who'll only be sat­is­fied when play­ing with the big folks of X-treme sports. Skydiving is the ulti­mate rush, and if jump­ing from a plane at 11000ft doesn't do it for you, then you're either not human or you're totally crazy. In either case we can't help you. But if the thought of plum­met­ing toward the earth at 120mph piques your interest, then wel­come to Skydiving in Cape Town. You can start off with a tan­dem jump with an exper­i­enced instructor after which there are many great sky­diving courses avail­able to get you ready for that life-changing first solo-jump.

Adventure sports are a boom­ing industry in Cape Town with hun­dreds of com­pan­ies offer­ing a myriad of activ­it­ies for thrill-seekers to explore. Give each one of them a try and who knows maybe you'll find a worth­while hol­i­day diver­sion, a story worth telling to your friends at home, or per­haps even a lifelong pas­sion. Let the adven­tures begin!

Useful Links:
South Africa Outdoor Activities
Abseiling in South Africa
Bungee Jumping in South Africa
Canopy Tours (Tree-topping)
Mountain Biking in South Africa
Ostrich Rides (For the brave!)
Paragliding in South Africa