Canopy Tours

Sailing high above the tree tops

Caroline Hurry finds an adrenaline rush with Canopy Tours in the Drakensberg.

Following a dare involving the Drakensberg Canopy Tour, the longest and highest in Africa, I awoke at 6am with some trepidation as dawn bathed the Spionkop Valley in a tangerine glow. Our tour leader Thabiso Ndlovu met us at the appointed hour. After a safety briefing he strapped us into our harnesses we were driven to a point at the top of the Blue Grotto forest, with its endemic species of birds and plants.

From the rabbit hole, as the first platform is aptly named, I plunged like Alice into a wonderland of treetops, vines, dappled sunlight, waterfalls and rainbows. As I dangled above it all like the pantomine fairy, I waited for vertigo to strike, but it never did.

At the Big Tree platform, where a gigantic old knobthorn reared its trunk up through all the foliage, Thabiso told us stories about the forest and his people. Knobthorn branches are used by the Zulus to protect the cattle inside the kraal.

Platforms are firmly bolted to cliffs, banks and boughs and the cables run like giant spider webs across the valley floor. Its a way to experience like an eagle as you glide through the forest canopy, home to more than 150 species of birds.

For group incentives or just pure family fun with a dash of adrenaline and some traditional culture thrown in, a Canopy Tour is hard to beat. For more information telephone 083 6615691.    To see the full article and photographs click here (PDF 135 kB)