Nothing like a good expedition to snap us out of our mundane routine of daily life; whether it is a walk out in nature or jumping from a perfectly functional aeroplane, I think we all need to give ourselves that sweet sweet taste of adventure from time to time.
In this post I will be looking at just such an adventure at just the right time in my life that I got to share with (new) fellow Steemian @couchilze and my amazing daughter Meggan.
Now firstly let me start off by sharing that Ilze and Meggan just so happen to share a birthday, and as it happened, Ilze who as you will know from following her posts, has found a new lease on life, and with a wonderful heart and a new found sense of adventure she decided that she wanted to take on the Magoebaskloof Canopy Tours for her birthday and invited myself and Meggan to share the adventure with her.
The Magoebaskloof Canopy Tours takes you on an overhead tour of the majestic valleys, waterfalls and scenic views of the Magoebaskloof mountain range situated at the tail of the Drakensburg range in Limpopo, South-Africa. It is a series of 14 platforms built on the hangs of the cliff-sides of the mountain that allows you to move in-between them while harnessed to the cables that connects them.
Now this is the fun part, once you reach the first platform, the only way out... is in!
There is now way of turning back an certainly no way of opting out, because the only way that you will be getting your ass safely back to solid ground is to make the 14 jumps. Each jump leading to you gliding over a different magical section of the forest while suspended by cables.
Let me tell you something - not one of the three of us can be classed as die hard adventure seekers, and honestly the fact that all three of us struggle with an immense fear of heights certainly did not aid the matter, none the less off we went, three friends, six shaking boots and a commitment to overcome whatever we were faced with from that point onward we made our way to the first platform.
I must admit that I was under the impression that after the first jump, you would become accustomed to being up in mid air flying through the sky over the most brilliant views you could possibly fathom, however reality called bullshit on that sentiment, and it never got any easier leaving the platform behind although it was just temporary sanctuary between the jumps and a false illusion of being earthed as all the platforms were about the height of a four story building from the ground, but at the same time the adrenaline combined with the breathtaking view seemed to be encouragement enough to move on (well that and the fact that as I stated earlier, there was no other way to get to the other side.)
See how in the picture below, the platform looks like it might be leading down to the ground? WELL IT DOESN'T!
The last piece of the platform you can see, is the last piece there is, after that it is a sheer drop.
With some of the platforms you had a sense of stability, as they were wider and as such felt more secure, however some of the other platforms were so tiny in width that you had to shimmy your way across them with your back against the cliff wall, and as if that was not interesting enough, at one stage we found ourselves counter-balancing our way across a rope bridge that was suspended over a precipice connecting to the next platform.
Also in the picture above, if you look on the right hand top side of the picture you can see the cable that is connecting us from that platform to the next, that can give you a decent idea of the distance between the platforms, that is one of the 14 cable glides that we did. In fact it was the last slide before we reached the half way mark, a comfortable platform that extended to one of the overhands where we could sit down for a while and rest our jelly legs for a bit before carrying on with our journey.
At the end of it all what felt like a crazy succession of moment to moment intervals actually turned out to be hours and hours that we spent on the canopy tour, and although I was extremely grateful to have both feet firmly on solid ground, it was quite sad to know that it had come to an end - the great part is that all three of us made it through the exciting yet nerve wrenching day unscathed (well that is if you take away the strenuous uphill hike that we had to endure in order to make it up to the vehicle that was standing ready to take up back up to the base camp!)
