National_Geographic_Traveller_India-May_2018

108 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER INDIA | MAY 2018

THE DESTINATION

In an instant, my feet slide out and bunch up under me and

my body thuds sideways against the rock with the rope cutting

painfully into my neck. Suspended hundreds of feet up in the

air and beginning to oscillate, I desperately hang on to the

rope, fighting the dread rising in my throat. Luckily, I regain

both my composure and my footing and continue. Sundeep

is still far above and wants me to slow down to capture the

action on his GoPro. But there is no chance of that as I am

pulled inexorably down by exhaustion and gravity. All of a

sudden another unpleasant shock springs up—the rock wall

disappears from under a 200-foot overhang and my feet flail

to find grip. I look helplessly down into the abyss; there is

no choice but to lower myself, hand-over-hand, slowly down

the rope. After what seems an eternity, the second instructor

appears below me, standing on a ledge, and it’s in his arms

that I fall gratefully. Released from the harness, I stand on

unsteady legs, trembling with adrenalin and relief. This one, I

conclude, has been quite the baptism of fire.

The next morning we pack our bags for Hermanus, a

picturesque coastal town 120 kilometres from

Cape Town, where more land adventures

await us. First amongst them is zip lining.

My first brush with this fun activity was in

Orlando. Here, in Hermanus, an old tractor-trailer

drags us to the topmost line in the hills above and we sail

down them cutting through a thicket of oak, poplar and ivy,

accompanied by two cheerful guides Colin and Tsipho who

clip us on and off at every stage. Still, it is not a patch on

the much higher and longer lines that I did entirely on my

own in Florida—I compare the feeling to being spoon-fed

in a nursery as opposed to the rough-and-tumble of making

it yourself in high school. Later on, chatting with Clinton,

the affable owner of SA Foreign Adventures, I discover that

the adventure outfit has much higher and longer lines in

operation at Cape Town. The Hermanus lines are Clinton’s

pioneer venture and not all have proper landing platforms. So

my recommendation would be to give it a shot in Cape Town

for a more fulfilling experience.

The next activity, quad biking, through the forests

bordering Hermanus, seems great fun and I am

confident that the gleaming bikes with their

four big tyres won’t be difficult to handle. How

wrong I am is something I learn quickly when

I find myself struggling with the controls of a single-seater

Kymco 300 trying to keep it on an even keel on the rough dirt

tracks. Discretion wins over valour and I switch to the larger

two-man Polaris 500 with my guide Dumisani now riding

pillion behind me.

We set off bumping along the rough trail that snakes

through the thick forest. Gradually, I gain confidence and

control over my sturdy no-gears steed. Soon we emerge into

open space and are now racing through a lush vineyard owned

by famous winemaker Hamilton Russell.

With the sun shining brightly down on my back and the

wind in my face, I feel like Peter Fonda in Easy Rider. Upon

reaching the crest of a hill, I am awestruck by the magnificent

panorama before us. Hermanus is sprawled to the right,

sparkling in the sun on one end of the vast stretch of Walker

Bay, whereas Gansbaai, a small town ideal for whale watching,

is perched on the other end of the horizon. It is the bluest

ocean imaginable marked by white lines of breakers surging

towards miles of sandy beach, appearing and disappearing

like laugh lines on the sparkling face of Neptune himself.

Sundeep and I stand in silence to take it all in—it is one of

those rare moments when one is overwhelmed by the beauty

and wonder of creation.

Zip lining through a
thicket of oak and ivy in
the forests of Hermanus