Storms River

We did venture down to the beach at Little Brak River, however the wind was so strong that the sand really hurt as it was driven into your face. We drove on to Knysna for lunch. The town seemed deserted and shut up - this was because the whole area's power was out (apparently planed, rather than because of the storm). Luckily we did find an open restaurant on the waterfront, proudly displaying its generator.

A little way on from Knysna is Southern Comfort Ranch, a horse riding and quad-biking centre, and our home for the night. Again we were their only guest in their basic, but adequate, accommodation. We were quickly sold into a 12km quad-bike trail, guide by both Mr and Mrs Quadbike - as there had been a lot of tree downs, Mr Quadbike took a chain saw. Pretty soon he was cutting through the first tree blocking the path, which was followed by several more. With the path clear, we zoomed round for a second time, coving ourselves in mud.

Early the next morning we started our horse ride. My horse, Sultan, we the fattest they had (this is becoming a theme), and therefore quite reluctant to actually move. The ride though the forest was very refreshing, even though I had to resort to waving a stick in front of Sultans face to get him to walk. From Southern Comfort we dropped back down to the coast at Plettenburg Bay for lunch watching the surfers in the bay.
















We'd been rather missing monkeys, so decided to get our fix at Monkeyland. Here, monkeys rescued from depressing lives as pets, or show pieces in poorly run zoos, get to live out their lives in 12 hectares of protected forest. You are guided through the forest in small groups, with the monkeys playing just above your head (it's a good idea to not have a monkey just above your head). The area has monkeys from South America and Asia, as well as Africa and Madagascar, so you can see Ring Tailed Lemmas playing with Squirl Monkeys. The monkeys are feed, but often catch and eat hapless birds – was saw a Gibbon finishing off some bird intestines.
















On the way to Storms River you cross the Bloukrans toll-bridge, the highest bridge in Africa spanning a huge gorge, although you hardly notice as you're driving over. This is the site of the world's highest bridge bungee; it's 216m from the jump site on top of the giant support arch to the tea coloured river below. We pulled in for a look, and watching people leap from the bridge into the abyss is frightening enough – I decided not the jump then, but sleep on it.














At Storms River, they have a canopy walk with a difference – rather than rope bridges between the tree platforms, you slide on zip lines between the trees. Ten slides in total take you down through the forest, for a fun couple of hours. In our group were three Irish lads on an adrenaline and drinking tour of the Western Cape. They were heading off to do the bungee, so I joined them.
















After being kitted up with your body harness, you have to walk to the top of the supporting arch. The route is a mesh walkway blotted to the underside of the bridge – many people find this more frightening than the jump itself. Once in the centre, you find the crew pumping out dance tunes and getting on with things in high sprite. Two of the Irish guys had paid upfront for three jumps (the third, Paul, was a bit scared of heights a glad to get just one over with) – they did the standard swan dive, a backwards fall (also with rope attached to ankles), and a running jump with the rope attached to the body harness.
















I was the last to go (I needed the heavier rope), and even though I done two before, when they get you to the edge, the panic really sets in. Fortunately they don't give you much choice, and soon enough you're over the edge hurtling towards the ground – seven seconds later you're rocketing upwards for a slightly smaller repeat performance. Once you've stopped bouncing around on the end of rope, hanging some 150m above the ground in the middle of a canyon is really quite peaceful. So enough the winch man reached you to hall you back to the platform. While I was drinking gin in the Cliff Hanger bar, we watch on the monitor a clearly distressed, crying girl being shoved off a bridge by two very large blokes.