Tsitsikamma Canopy Tour

Emo, our guide, shows us how the foefie slide works. Two American tourists, Shauna and Rachel, and I listen intently. The wooden platform we stand on is built around the trunk of an enormous Outeniqua yellowwood. I can feel how the tree moves slowly beneath our feet. We are high up in the canopy of giant yellowwood, stinkwood and ironwood trees, about 30m above the ferns and creepers on the forest floor. “Peeooo!”, I hear the call of a forest buzzard as it soars past.

Canopy tours were first invented in 1992 in Costa Rica’s tropical forest.
Ashley Wentworth took over the concept here and started the Tsitsikamma Canopy Tours in 2001 – the first in Africa and a conservation initiative that offers work to about 50 local people. Each year, about 28000 people get harnessed up here to do a tour.

It’s a safe eco-adventure for the whole family.
Anyone from 7 to 70 can do it. (The weight limit is 120kg. Kobus Wiese would have to stay behind to look after the car.)

It’s not really a Tarzan experience:
Ten steel cables run from tree to tree. You’re strapped into a harness with a crash helmet on your head. You wear a thick glove, and you slow yourself down by gripping the line with your gloved hand. At the next platform there’s always a guide ready to catch you if you don’t brake in time.

Right, we’re ready to roll
The first few rides are short. Shauna lets out a yell as she glides between the trees. “She never screams,” Rachel giggles.
At each platform, Emo tells us more about the forest’s plants and animal species while we admire the view – still safely hitched to the tree. “Wow. This is fabulous,” Shauna shouts. Two Knysna turacos fly past, but the elusive narina trogon is nowhere to be seen.
“Hoehoehoehoe!” I shout on the eighth slide, 90m long.
The adrenaline is pumping. Moments later, a Knysna turaco answers me with a hoarse “kaukaukaukau”. This is fun!

How long does it take?
The whole outing takes about two hours, after which we get a complimentary burger. What shall I do next? I still have a whole afternoon ahead of me.

Fast facts

Where? Storms River village is just off the N2, 65km east of Plett.

When? Every half-hour, every day of the week.

Cost: R450 per person (including a light lunch). a DVD costs R145.

Contact: 042 281 1836; www.treetoptour.com

Other things to do: The Woodcutters Journey is a historical tour to the old Storms River Pass or wander through the forest on the 2 km Goesa trail.