Becoming a South African adrenaline junkie

Meet a great white shark at close quarters:

Are you game to stare down a shark as it comes swimming toward you under water at high speed? While it sounds extreme, many who do the dive report a feeling of peace and serenity when they are in the sharks' domain.

Shark cage diving operates along the Garden Route drive, with the dives mostly taking place in Hermanus and Gansbaai. And you can rest assured that it is a strictly controlled activity. On a Marine Dynamics trip, a marine biologist onboard will educate divers about distinguishing between a male and female as well as between different species. An expert bait handler places a lure into the water that is smeared with tuna. Two platforms above the cage allow handlers to keep the sharks near to the divers.

If you want a tamer experience, try a sea safari of the big marine five. It still incorporates sharks but the other four species are somewhat gentler – dolphins, seals, whales and the hardly intimidating penguin.

Run with sardines:

Imagine being one among millions in a movement so immense it can be seen from space. You can when you swim with, or should we say be swamped by, sardines in their annual migration. Between May and July tens of millions flee the cold waters off Cape Point for the warmer waters of the KwaZulu-Natal coast. Proving the metaphor of being packed in like sardines, the shoals travel in clusters that reach up to 15 kilometres in length, three kilometres in width and forty metres depth.

But that's just the sardines. Imagine the predators that see this as one giant bait ball. Massive squadrons of birds wheel overhead while dolphins, sharks and seals arc through the water for the easiest feast on record. You can snorkel, surface view or scuba dive with an operator like Seal Expeditions during this unrivalled experience. If you're lucky you will see with your own eyes what others have only seen on David Attenborough documentaries, as schools of dolphins cunningly deploy the tactic of herding the sardines from deeper water, trapping the fish at the ocean's surface before closing in for the coup de grace.

Kloofing between canyons:

There's no rush quite like the one that comes from climbing cliffs and jumping without a parachute or a bungee cord. When you kloof the biggest adrenalin surge comes from a freefall undertaken in the hope that the water beneath is deep enough to cushion your landing.

Kloofing is an extreme sport that combines rock-climbing with diving and swimming. It is also definitely as much fun as it sounds. You're guaranteed to get wet on a kloof expedition, so the best time to make the leap of faith is in summer. Kloofers make like the river they are following by using all methods necessary to work their way down or upstream.

Kloofing began life in the Western Cape however the most thrilling kloof is said to be in Kwa-Zulu Natal at the Mfongosi River, which has a number of rock slides. Unlike other kloofing trails at no point along this river are you forced to either jump or be stuck mid-river. So for the indecisive among us, this is a great option as there's always an exit strategy for those that suddenly come over height phobic.

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