The Western Cape & the World's Highest Bungy

---

After my close encounter with the sharks I made my way North along the coast to Oudshoorn via Mossel Bay. Between the two towns I visited Nyaru Game Lodge, who are keepers and breeders of large game. As a side line they do quad bike safaris around their property to view the animals, which was why I was there. The highlight amongst the numerous antelope and zebra were undoubtedly the giraffes, one of which had a three week old calf which was already taller than me! As well as the mother there were several adult males, two of which started fighting a few feet from our bikes; they used their heads like giant clubs to try and inflict as much damage as possible by bashing every exposed part of their opponents bodies. At one point the tussle moved toward a tree which suffered several broken branches and showed just how hard they must hit.
In Oudshoorn, officially the ostrich capital of the world, I went along on an organized tour of one of the local farms where the birds are mass produced. They are undoubtedly extremely stupid animals, only to be expected as they are the only creatures with eyes bigger then their brains. The highlight was watching the visitors lucky enough to be under 75kg take a ride on the back of the birds, they certainly picked up quite a pace with a tourist strapped to their backs.
Another organized activity in the area was a tour of Cango Caves, the forth largest cave system on the planet, unsurprisingly I opted for the adventure tour. This involved walking, crawling & squeezing 1.2km inside the cave system, not a trip for claustrophobics. The worst section was called “The Chimney”, this was a 3m near vertical climb through a narrow shaft, in the dark; I cant say it was particularly easy for someone of my stature. I did the tour with a German guy who was 6’7” & he struggled even more than me.
The next stop along the Cape was Knysna, I had read that the Mountain Biking in the nearby Harkerville forest was well worth a try. Similarly to Cape Town I found some fantastic single track routes here, this time they wound through dense forest and along the coastline of the Indian Ocean, unfortunately dense fog ruined most of my views, the glimpses of which were spectacular, but still a great day out. I think I cycled around 64km, I also think that’s about my limit.
The next stop along the Coast was Storms River, where once again I came to a highlight of my trip, the world’s highest bungy jump. Bloukrans bridge is an incredibly impressive structure in its own right & dwarfs the valley below it, it was built to carry the N2 motorway over Storms River Gorge and not just for the bungy adrenalin junkies as one American girl suggested. The bungy takes place from the centre of the bridges main arch, 216m above the river below, just to repeat that… two-hundred-and-sixteen meters above the valley floor. The walk out there was on a wire mesh walkway suspended under the deck, this gave an amazing view of just what I was letting myself in for. The jump was incredible, 5 seconds of freefall & even the second fall after the first rebound was larger than the jump I did in New Zealand (World’s second highest). Combine that kind of adrenalin rush with views of the ocean in one direction & forest covered hills in the other & its makes for undoubtedly the best Bungy jump in the world.
That afternoon I did a zip line canopy tour in the nearby primary forest, this involved whizzing down a series of 10 zip lines high up in the forest canopy; amazing views and with some of the lines reaching over 90m between trees great fun as well. An excellent way to wrap up a fantastic day.

---

Photos

5-4-3-2-1-Bungy
What a dive!