Canopy Tours

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It's funny, sometimes, the thoughts that go through one's mind in moments of high anxiety. And I do mean high.

I'm dangling underneath a steel cable which looks impossibly thin, looking down through the tree canopy at the Karkloof Forest floor, 50 metres below me. I'm stuck, unable to move, caught in the high air no man's land, 40 metres from the upper platform and 80 metres or more from safety at the lower platform.

And all I can think of is becoming the unwitting focus of a Rescue 911-type programme: when it went wrong for journalist Brendan Seery, it really went wrong …

Then I console myself, at least I didn't break any bones when I cannoned into the branches of a tree. Still later, I feel slightly embarrassed because I'm hanging here in this predicament through my own fault.

You see, sliding down these forest "foefie slides" requires that you do the braking. It should be simple: you wear a thick suede glove with a stout leather pad sewn into the palm. You pull down on the cable, lessening the angle at which it whizzes through the pulley.

My problem was that I tried to fight the cable and effectively tried grabbing it to make myself stop. That worked fine for the first steep descent to a tree branch where you are advised to rest a while and recover. I did that and set out for the next branch below, but suddenly found I had no strength in my arms. No strength, no braking. And the rest, as they say, was physics.

After skillfully using the shins of both legs as brakes (by smacking into the branch), I spun in the air, losing grip on the main cable. The bouncing and twisting was enough to suck the safety cable into the pulley and bring me to a sluggish halt.

So, here I sit in my splendid isolation, not really taking in what is a spectacular view down the mountainside, across the valley and right over the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands farms and forests. I try to pull myself hand over hand towards the lower platform. That doesn't last long - my arms are as useful as boiled pieces of macaroni and the pulley gets even tighter with each pull. Then it is stuck solid.

So, to put it mildly, I was somewhat relieved to see one of the guides from the Karkloof Canopy Tour, Busiswe Mbokozi, pulling himself up towards me from the lower platform. It's an incredible feat - all arm power, pulling himself up the cable for the best part of 80 metres. Later he tells me that the guides' comprehensive training covers these sort of eventualities and that this is not the first "rescue" they've had to carry out.

Busisiwe says all the guides - young Zulu-speaking men from the Karkloof area - are "very strong and we do lots of training". In addition, he says, he does some weight training on his own at home.

Never thought I would be thankful to someone who pushes weights … Eventually, he reaches me and after more drama, during which his safety rope gets stuck, we stutter downwards towards the platform, umbillically linked with cables and karabiners.

For the last two slides I elect to go tandem with Busisiwe. We scream down the cables, he brakes perfectly and we glide to a halt at the platform. Despite my experience, I reflect, as I hobble down the mountainside from the final platform, that at no stage did I feel in danger - or frightened.

Perhaps that's because the equipment is state-of-the-art - the karabiners, hooks, safety ropes, helmets and the cables themselves are all the best that money can buy. All through this, I can hear the skeptics wondering why the hell people would do this for fun.

The simple answer is that there is nothing else like it. And when it all goes well, when the cable is singing as it whips through your gloved hand and you fly between the platforms at an incredible speed, the adrenaline buzz is almost other-worldly. That's why extreme sports are taking off all over the world. And that's why it's not for everybody. You can end up getting a clout, like me.

Karkloof Canopy Tours went public just over a month ago, after construction began early this year. Pretoria businessman Anton Barnes bought himself a 30 hectare slice of the Karkloof as a retreat, but after experiencing the Tsitsikamma Canopy Tour near Storms River, he decided to explore the possibility of setting one up on his own property.

The concept of the tours came from the lush Central American country of Costa Rica, where biologists studying the massive rain forests and separate to explore the upper canopies of these fascinating co-systems, devised a system of cables and platforms which would allow them to scoot around quickly and safely, many metres above the jungle floor.

The concept was later commercialized and South African Mark Brown visited Costa Rica, liked what he saw and brought it back here, forming a company called Tree Top Tours in conjunction with Ashley Wentworth of Storms River Adventures.

Barnes went to Tree Top Tours and asked them if a similar experience could be put together on his property.

The result is seven viewing decks, joined by eight slides which roll up into a three-hour experience. The Karkloof Canopy Tour goes entirely through the indigenous afro-montane forest and in that sense is similar to the one in Tsitsikamma. However, the Tsitsikamma version has a longest slide of 60 metres, while Karkloof boasts a number of rides which are more than 150m long.

Barnes says that the experience is suitable for all ages, from 7 to 70, but obviously the adrenaline game is not everybody's cup of tea. The tour is, though, an amazing way to get up close and personal with some beautiful scenery in one of the most ecologically important areas in the country. There's a chance of good bird sightings - including the Narina Trogon and endangered Cape parrot in the canopy.

All the guides have, in addition to their extensive training on the slides and safety issues, been through a thorough basic interpretative course on wildlife, so they can give you pointers on the ecology of the forest.

Cost is R395 per person, which includes lunch, transport up the mountain to the starting point and mid-tour refreshments. The tours are run all year round, but because of the dangers of wet weather (the cables are too slippery to allow good braking and the mist is often so thick that visibility is dangerously limited and, trust me, you need to know where the trees are!), when booking, people are advised to give a cell phone contact number in the event that a tour may have to be cancelled at the last minute.

The Karkloof Canopy Tours brochure slogan is simply:

"An experience you'll never forget!"

You're telling me …

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