Score an Adrenaline Hat Trick!

Kick off your adventure tour of the Cape Town and the Western Cape atop world famous Table Mountain, then step off the edge, 1000 metres up, and rappel into pure vertical space. A thrilling experience of adrenaline and achievement awaits - a 112 metre controlled descent off Cape Town's magnificent mountain, surrounded by awesome views and the deep blue Atlantic at your feet.

Try a quick hike up gentle Lions Head. You should make it to the summit in 60 minutes (there’s a tricky bit where you’ll need to make use of chain ropes and steel ladders, although you can circumvent this); but its more than worth the walk. The views from the top are sensational and look out over the City and the Atlantic seaboard.

Mention heaven to a kiteboarder and bets are they will they’ll immediately think of Langebaan on the Cape West Coast. A gentle sloping and safe lagoon, stable wind conditions and buckets of sunshine, even during the Cape’s winter, make this the perfect setting for your second adrenalin rush. If you're up for it, the spot is on the shores of the huge Langebaan Lagoon, 1.5 hours drive north of Cape Town on the R27 to the west coast. The azure water of the 20km long X 1,5km wide lagoon offers exceptional flat water kitesurfing for beginners through to advanced kite surfers.

To complete your hat trick, drive out to Gansbaai in the Cape Overberg, 2 hours from Cape Town, situated approximately 180km south east of Cape Town and face a Great White Shark head-on. Your chances of observing White Sharks from the surface are higher than 90% from April through December but if you want to go into the cage, then diving conditions are at their best from May to August. Whilst you’re in Gansbaai, drive only 3 km to De Kelders which offers some amazing shore-based whale watching from June through December, as does the larger town of Hermanus which is only 50 kilometers away.

And if these three rushes don’t do it for you, then head out to the Cape Garden Route & Klein Karoo for another dose of adrenaline. Here, 40 km east of Plettenberg Bay, get into countdown mode at the King of Swings on the Bloukrans River Bridge. This is the ultimate thrill – the highest commercially operated bungee jump in the world at 216m.

If you’re headed for the Cape Garden Route & Klein Karoo, Route 62 offers a better alternative to the N2 motorway between Cape Town and George, being more scenic and slightly shorter. We take the N1 via the Du Toits Kloof Pass to Worcester and then along the R60 which meanders from Worcester, by way of the Breede River Valley, through Robertson, Ashton and Montagu. Continue on to Barrydale for a cold beer at Ronnie’s Sex Shop where you can watch soccer with the locals on TV, and spend the night in one of many fabulous guest houses in the town.

Rise early and after a lekker breakfast, connect with the N2 highway by way of the speactacular Tradouw Pass to Suurbraak. Pass through the towns of Heidelberg (the Gateway to the Cape Garden Route & Klein Karoo) and Albertinia en route to Mossel Bay. Ah, the Cape Garden Route & Klein Karoo. It’s long, it’s green, it’s beautiful.

Spend the night in Wilderness with its wetlands area comprising five rivers, five lakes and almost 20km of beach. Or rest up Knysna, with its location at the foot of the Outeniqua Mountains, and on the shores of a gorgeous lagoon, sheltered behind the towering Knysna Heads.

Then make for Plett, as the town is affectionately known, and head straight for the Bloukrans Bridge. You’re lucky, it’s going to be relatively quiet around here. In season, Plett is the summer playground of the rich and famous, so enjoy its attractions all to yourself. Then return to Cape Town by road or air or fly out of Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg. And if these pulse-racing activities don’t do it for you – or quad biking, sandboarding, tree-top canopy tours, mountain biking, parasailing, breaking the sound barrier piloting a fighter jet or the other pulse-pounding pastimes on offer – well then, maybe you should stick to soccer.


more:     who / do / eat / relax / connect / party / shop

• Score an adrenaline hat trick [outdoor/active]
• Cheer a killer pass on and off the field [natural beauty]
• When your craving demands more than a burger [gourmet]
• Take in a bit of Cape culture as your team goes for glory [culture and heritage]
• When the sound of the vuvuzela starts getting to you [body, mind and spirit]
• Living it up when the final whistle blows [cosmopolitan vibe]