Dive at Sodwana Bay
Sodwana Bay is a top diving spot in the world and is situated between St. Lucia and Lake Sibhayi in the Sodwana Bay National Park and the Maputaland Marine Reserve. Here, no matter your experience, there’s an option for you from the PADI Scuba Diver course, which includes the manual, equipment, lecture, pool sessions and two dives in the sea, to the PADI Open Water course, which happens to be the most popular underwater course in the world and includes the manual, equipment hire, four sea dives and registration. Taking the kids? No problem – they cater for children from the age of eight.
For more information, visit www.coraldivers.co.za.
Ride a quad bike
Get ready for some 4-wheeler fun, also near Sodwana Bay. This adventure will make for an afternoon full of fun and consists of a guided, self-drive quad bike adventure through sand dunes, forests, local rural areas, finally ending up at Lake Sibaya where you can swim and picnic. Each quad bike can take two people and drivers can alternate at swap points. Kids are welcome, too.
More information, visit www.campjonathan.co.za.
Horse-riding
There is an abundance of horse-riding trails in South Africa with one of the more popular ones being Pearly Beach Horse Trails which offers trail rides on the beach, through the fynbos, at sundowners and for champagne celebrations, during full moon and including overnight trails. You can ride while your horse strolls through the waves or you can stick to the beach.
Closer to Johannesburg, there’s another horse trail company called Harties Horse Trail Safaris. Set in the beautiful Silkaatsnek Nature reserve just one hour from Johannesburg, the company offers safari rides at various times of the day and awesome sightings of giraffe, kudu, blue wildebeest, nyala, impala, ostrich, blesbok, zebra and springbok, all from the comfort of your saddle.
Walk wild
The Wild Coast is named so because of its unforgiving coastline and tricky accessibility. With so much to discover, the hike route covers areas stretching from the Wild Coast Sun all the way down to Coffee Bay. We recommended getting a guide who can read your crowd well and navigate the area to your needs, while ensuring your safety.
Want a walk on the (other) wild side? For R150, you can “walk the bridge”, putting one petrified food in front of the other as you “dangle” below the Bloukrans Bridge structure in a cage hovering 216 metres above terra firma, which you can see through those little mesh holes. This is a walk you won’t forget!
The Big Swing
Graskop in South Africa is home to the world’s highest cable gorge swing! The 70-metre freefall, at 140km/h in under three seconds, is not for the faint hearted. Those brave enough to take the plunge are strapped in an upright position and get to enjoy the most exhilarating swing, ever!
Splash at a water park
The Wild Coast Sun has an impressive water park called Wild Waves Water Park offering thrills on water rides such as the Aqualoop, Superbowl, Boomerango and two extremely steep body slides, as well as a max-relax on the lazy river.
Other notable water parks in South Africa include Happy Island in Muldersdrift, The Kingdom Resort in Pilanesburg, Wet ‘n Wild at UShaka Marine World in Durban, and The Valley of the Waves at Sun City in the North West.
Author: Donna Verrydt
