I’m in the post card picture perfect beach town of Wilderness, South Africa. I awoke this morning to the cool ocean breeze whisping in the balcony door. With crusty’s still in the corners of my eyes, the soft waves crashing onto the beach, I almost want to go back to sleep. I hear someone talking about whales and I jump to the balcony. A mere couple hundred feet off the beach a whale frolics in the surf. His massive body jumps through the air, turns sideways flopping on the surface causing a an enormous splash. He’s having fun. He flips his tail smacking the water and then jumps again. It’s almost like watching a show at Sea World, only it’s free and it’s the beauty of nature.
Today I have my heart set on Kloofing. It’s the South African term for what is known as Canyoning elsewhere in the world. So what is Kloofing you may ask. Well it’s where one descends down a river within a canyon or ravine. It entails scrambling/climbing over rocks/boulders, high jumping, abseiling/rappelling, and swimming! I’ve been referred to Marthinus a professional Redbull sponsored extreme mountain biker, who in the off-season guides custom tours for individuals and small groups. While I’ve been canyoning before, in all my years of travel and all the various activities, this day has turned into the sole best thing I’ve ever done. It’s going to be extremely difficult to top. His company is Paradise Adventures. If you ever end up here, book him as a guide.
Our day sets out hiking a trail, if I can even call it a trail, through the woods and bush. Stepping on tree limbs, pulling back branches, and waist deep grass and various plants scrape my waist and legs as we make our way to a location Martinus has discovered over years of canyoning the local area. Nobody else leads these small tours.
We start out in a scene I know many have seen but never imagined descending. It’s a rock/boulder filled ravine with a river flowing down between the canyon walls. We start hoping boulder to boulder then wade through frigid rock filled water. The canyon walls are 75-100 feet apart and go straight up on both sides. The canopy cover at the top almost obscures any sight of the sky. We come to a large boulder water pouring over a 20 foot drop. Martinus tells me to jump that the water is deep enough. I plunge over the edge. As I hit the water, it’s so cold my chest tightens, taking my breath away, making it almost hard to breath. Thank goodness I have a life vest on. As I swim down the river the walls begin getting closer together, sheer, and higher.
Swimming until my body and hands are numb we come to more boulders. More scrambling combined with a few more death-defying jumps over slippery moss-covered rocks down waterfalls continues for at least another hour as my core temperature begins to slowly drop. We encounter a waterfall to high up to jump. Martinus rigs us for an abseil/rappel down the fall and over the edge I go trusting the equipment and Martinus as my belay.
For the next several hours we climb over boulders, jump down water falls, swim through frigid waters, and make a few rappels. All the time the ravine gets narrower and narrower. It’s a mere 10 feet from wall to wall. Here we encounter our last rappel A huge boulder is lodged between the two walls. We swim up to it water flowing around both sides, scramble on top, rig ourselves for the descent. Over the edge I go water pours on top of me. As I slowly descend the rock face of the boulder disappears and I find the boulder has created an outcropping and I’m now dangling mid-air behind the waterfall and underneath the wedged rock. Thousands of gallons pouring over and I land in a deep pool. White froth foams all around as I swim through the falls, and down the river. We swim our way down stream through curving canyon walls, around a corner and viola the canyon walls dissipate to a rock and stream filled bed. I’m exhilarated, freezing, shivering like crazy, and wonder how close I’ve come to hypothermia. I’m on cloud 9. This has been an amazing experience I’ll probably never exceed. I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of the video Martinus shot with this helmet cam.
I set out on this day not sure what was in store or how extreme it would be. I was nervous and anxious how my hip would handle the day not knowing how out-there the day turned out to be. I can elated report, not one issue at all. I felt whole and normal, doing extreme stuff, if even it was for a day. I’m thankful and hopeful for more such days.
