Updated January 9, 2007
Compiled by Lucille Davie
TIRED of the usual hiking, jogging, gymning way of getting some exercise? Want to push yourself a little? Well, here are several suggestions to get your weekly adrenalin rush, but get ready for some extreme stuff, like stepping off a 24-storey building, or descending into a pitch-dark cave, or climbing, Spiderman-style, over huge boulders without ropes. Bring it on!
Climb the walls
We all feel like climbing the wall sometimes. Well, now you can climb a wall . . . at the SA Climb Inn in Randburg, where there's a huge indoor climbing gym with a set of graded walls, the tallest at 10.5 metres. There's an instructor on site for beginners who need assistance. It's open 1pm-10pm week days, 10am-7pm weekends, and costs R60 a day, or you can join the club. The Inn is at Unit 1 Kya Sands Industrial Village, 22 Elsecar Street, Kya Sands. Phone 072 632 4676 or
bizafri@wol.co.za for more details.
A different kind of climb
Once you've climbed indoor, safe walls, you may be ready for a different kind of mind-boggling climb: stepping off a 24-storey building face downwards. This is forward rappelling or rap jumping or face-first abseiling. You'll step off a building, face first, and like Spiderman, walk down the building, supported from the top. Pure Rush Industries rap jumps off two Johannesburg buildings: one of 22 floors in Edenvale, another of 24 floors in Braamfontein. And you don't need any abseiling skills - just a few minutes of training on site. And if you get hooked, you can go away for a weekend to Mpumalanga and tackle several cliffs. There's no age limit: the youngest rap jumper was seven years old, who jumped in tandem, the oldest 74. Cost is R200 for three jumps. Contact Marco on 082 605 1150 or Duncan on 072 443 7000 for your next rap jump.
Joburg's mountaineers
While you've got the ropes handy, why not try some mountaineering? Joburg's mountaineers have three favourite spots: Northcliff, Struben's Valley in Roodepoort, and the western section of Melville Koppies. All have great rockfaces to climb, with bolts in place, and all are used every weekend. Parking for Melville Koppies is on the corner of Judith and Beyers Naude Roads in Melville, with entrance through the gate nearby. Northcliff is fenced and entrance is in the car park below the water tower in Lucky Avenue. Struben's Valley is accessible from the vacant lot in Montrose Avenue - follow the path up to the crag on the left. Contact Dom on 082 445 1682 for more details.
Tackle those boulders
Once you've got some mountaineering under the belt, the next step is bouldering. The two spots are Lonehill Koppie, which is becoming very popular, and The Wilds in Houghton. Bouldering involves traversing rock faces, from left to right, with no ropes, and about 1-2 metres off the ground. Lonehill is open every weekend, and the top rock of the Koppie offers great bouldering. The Wilds are open all the time, but you should go in a party. Bouldering takes place on the east side, just beyond the bridge over Houghton Drive, where there is parking.
Go ballooning
Now you're ready for a total lift-off. Try a balloon trip over the Magaliesberg, 50 kilometres north-west of the city. Balloon Safaris will take 6 to 18 people on a one-hour flight over the mountain and bring you back to a full champagne breakfast. You'll have coffee and biscuits while the crew inflates the balloon, and sip champagne while gently floating over the earth. Cost is R1 995 per person, and the balloon leaves from Skeerpoort near the Hartebeespoort Dam. You'll have to get up early - it's a 6am start. Phone 011 705 3201 to book your flight, or visit the
web site.
Fly like a bird
If you liked what you saw from up there, why not try paragliding? Paragliding consists of sitting on a seat attached to a large rectangular-shaped parachute, which is controlled by means of strings. You can either run off a hill or be run up into the air, and then catch air currents to fly like a bird. Paragliding Adventures offers an introductory four-day course with 10 flights over one month. Phone Carlos Rafael on 082 550 7568 to arrange the flights or visit
www.flyza.co.za for more information.
Orienteering
Back on earth, orienteering skills are fun to learn. Orienteering involves finding your way over unknown territory, often by means of running or hiking, with the help of a map and compass. The Rand Athletic Club meets twice a month, and you'll start with a simple three-kilometre course in a suburban setting, and graduate on to a more difficult course of up to 10 kilometres. You don't need to bring anything along except walking shoes, a hat, plenty of sunblock, and R25. Phone Pat de Klerk on 011 793 5380 for more details or visit the
web site for the next challenge.
Mountain biking
One skill you might want to hone while still on terra firma is mountain biking. There's two clubs in Joburg: Rock Hoppers for the more competitive, and the Johannesburg Mountain Bike Club for those wanting to enjoy social biking. Rock Hoppers members meet once a month at different offroad tracks on the outskirts of the city, usually to race laps on a 7-8km course. All ages are catered for, and those wanting to do the course as weekend fun, are accommodated too. The club has 16 events a year, some of them qualifiers for provincial races. Phone Ken Davis on 083 331 9380 for details on how to join the club or get more details from the
web site. The Johannesburg Mountain Bike Club has weekly rides and an annual race of 60kms. They grade their weekly outings to include families and the serious rider, and usually ride up to 45kms at places like Honeydew or Kyalami. Phone Abri Smit on 083 302 9360 for more information but you can get all the details from the
web site or join the Club on the site.
White water rafting
You've been in the air, walked down buildings, climbed across boulders, biked across rough country, now you need to get on the water. But you've never been in a boat before, you don't know how to paddle or steer a boat, you can't swim, so you could never go white water rafting. Wrong. You can go rafting on the Vaal River, learn how to paddle and steer the rubber raft, and have a great time. Dimalachite offers various rafting adventures, with or without a meal, with some great rapids to get your adrenalin rushing. Dimalachite is in Parys some 120 kilometres south-west of the Johannesburg, and you can stay the weekend if you wish. Phone 056 818 1860 for the details, or visit their
web site.
Learn to canoe
That experience may inspire you to learn to glide through the water like a duck. Well, you can, at Emmarentia Dam, with the guidance of Bill van der Walt of the Dabulamanzi Canoe Club. Bill will get you canoeing around the Dam and if you work at it six days a week, he'll take you on a river within three months, to learn the ins and outs of rapids. Bill supplies you with a canoe, and a paddle for the initial paddling on the Dam. He charges R100 an hour per person and training is by appointment. There's no age restriction. Phone Bill on 083 266 7750 or visit the
Dabulamanzi web site to get details to register as a canoeist.
Caving
It's time now to go underground. Scared of the dark, heights, and suffering from claustrophobia? Well, now you can tackle all three fears in one go by going caving in several dark, tall, and at times tight caves at the Cradle of Humankind at Sterkfontein. There are eight different caves of varying grades, and once you're kitted out with a helmet with torch, hiking boots, some basic instruction in abseiling and rock climbing and a trusty guide, you can tackle the starter cave of 4 000 square metres. Phone Sandy or Neil of Wild Cave Adventures on 011 956 6197 or visit the
web site.
Get adventuresome
And finally, you can get to combine all these great skills in multi-leg adventure races that top athletes do. Several races have been organised for the year, involving disciplines like hiking, canoeing or rafting, abseiling and mountain biking. There's a range of distances - from 10 to 40 kilometres. You can join the Adventure Racing Club and get involved in lots of fun - check out the details on the
web site. Phone Christo Horn on 082 853-0330 or e-mail him at
christo.horn@letacla.co.za, for more details.
