Blyde Canyon Abseiling & Kloofing

Kloofing, or canyoning is the art of following a mountain stream down its course by floating, or jumping or swimming. By its very nature, kloofing takes place in a river gorge, deep in the mountains. The point of kloofing, is to leap over waterfalls or cliffs into pools.

This 5 hour trip begins near the Strjidom Tunnel, bordering Mpumalanga and the Limpopo Provinces. Kitted out with helmets and life jackets, guests wind their way down a small gorge, jumping from heights ranging from 1-8m into crystal clear mountain spring water. It's a lot of fun and is perfect to try out the whole idea as you can chicken out if you like and walk around to the bottom of the pool.

One section requires the guests to crawl through a maze of caves formed by centuries of water carving out the brittle rock. Once through the caves, guests are taken to a magnificent tufa waterfall to wash off the sand and mud from their clothing. After that, the clients are taken to a magnificent cave, boasting its own fresh water spring and the most peculiar fresh water eel, which almost always emerges to see whether the guides brought him a morsel.

The rest of the trip zigzags across the river and through a spectacular riverine forest, until you finally emerge on the banks of the Olifansts river where your transport is waiting with a cold drink and snack.

Half day (9am to 2 pm)

What to bring along

Shorts, T-shirts, swimming costume, sun-block, comfortable walking shoes, but the shoes will get wet. Towel and an extra set of dry clothes and sense of adventure.

Difficulty:

Challenging and exciting and you need a degree of physical fitness.

Not to be afraid of heights.

Age limit: 16 years

Min booking: 4 persons

ABSEILING

In case you have no idea what abseiling is all about, it's the art of lowering yourself safely down a rope. You wear a climbing harness, and are clipped onto the rope with some manner of descending device. You then walk backwards down the cliff face or dam wall, or whatever) supported by the rope, slowly lowering yourself down, enjoying the scenery en route. Most commercial abseils are belayed. If you were to just let go in panic, the trip leader could safely lower you down remotely, either from above or below. It's also quite likely that there'll be a decent section of overhang, so you get to spend some time just hanging out, admiring the view. For something a tad more extreme - rapp jumping is abseiling with the climbing ropes attached at your back instead of your tummy, so you go down face first - usually running. Not for the faint of heart.

The rock face that we used to abseil is situated on the banks of the Blyde Dam right next to the dam wall, boasting some spectacular scenery of the canyon, dam,the Three Rondawels and maybe a Hippo or two. From where you will be abseiling you will be seeing the Blyde dam wall and the overflow of the dam into the Blyde river.

Duration:

Two hours

What to bring along

Walking shoes, sun-block and a sense of adventure.

Age limit: 16 years

Min persons: 4

Max persons: 12