By Jan de Beer
With adventure tourism now very much the in thing, chances are that some of the more remote gorges in South Africa will soon have abseil cables straddling them.
Abseiling has even arrived at Oribi Gorge - not the most publicised or best-known canyon in the country - to thrill adrenalin junkies and bring commercialism to nature.
For those who have never heard of the Oribi Gorge, it is a breathtaking abyss about 22km inland from Port Shepstone on the N2 to Harding and Kokstad. Formed over millions of years by the Umzimkhulwana River, the canyon features magnificent red-orange sandstone cliffs towering over a valley lined with a multitude of trees, flowers and ferns.
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The catchphrase used to entice adventure tourists, "Africa is not for sissies", is appropriate here - even if you don't abseil over the gorge. Just looking down from the edge of the summit starts your heart pounding. Vertigo sufferers will probably refuse to leave their cars.
To drive to the best vantage points in the gorge, you have to pay a R10 admission fee to the Oribi Gorge Conference Hotel and Adventure Resort.
The hotel has recently been refurbished and expanded and now has 18 bedrooms, two conference rooms, a pub, a terrace tea garden and the Eagle's Eyrie Restaurant (housed in a restored building dating back to the 1890's).
The menu for the tea garden is ultra-tempting with its "sumptuous salads, bountiful baguettes, gorgeous grills, and yummies for tummies".
The Wild Five adventurous pursuits offered here are pretty wild and include the Wild Swing (said to be the highest of its kind in the world) which - for R300 - will send you free-falling into a 100m arch, at a just legal 120km/h over the edge of Lehr's Falls. If you think that's too tame, you can abseil down the gorge (R200) or Wild Slide (R180) over it, suspended 160m above the valley floor.
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