SA Forest Adventures announced it would open the world’s longest zipline (Getty Images)
- South Africa will soon have the world’s longest zipline, and it already has one claiming to be the fastest.
- These ziplines are now major tourist attractions in most provinces and are a great way to explore incredible locations.
- Here are six options worth adding to your local travel bucket list.
From around the mid-2000s, ziplines started to pop up in several of South Africa’s most scenic locations. With their relatively low cost and novelty factor for visitors and tourists alike, they made for great franchises to open in unlikely, often remote but painfully scenic locations.
However, after a few early projects proved their popularity, more companies have started to tap into this potential.
Sun City’s Zip 2000 has the self-proclaimed title of the world’s fastest zipline (with recorded speeds of up to 160kph).
And this month, SA Forest Adventures announced it would open the world’s longest zipline. At 3.2km, the K3 zipline in Caledon, outside Cape Town, will beat its nearest competitor by nearly 400 meters.
Although the titles of longest and fastest make for great marketing slogans, there’s a lot more to a successful zipline excursion – more important than both, at least for the softer adrenaline junkies, is the location.
Central to most zipline operations in South Africa is the scenery, and although it’s a thrill to cruise on nothing but a high-altitude wire, when combined with an epic view, it’s an even more memorable experience.
Here are six of the most scenic ziplines to harness up for while you wait for the K3 to open its record-setting operation.
Cape Canopy Tour, Western Cape
Cape Canopy Tour is located in the Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve, 90 minutes from Cape Town. It is perhaps one of the country’s most dramatic zipline operations as far as scenery is concerned – you’re right in the heart of the spectacular Elgin Valley. And with 13 elevated platforms, a suspension bridge, and slides reaching up to 320 meters long, offering 30 seconds of airtime, there’s no shortage of adrenaline, either.
Cost: R1095 per person
More info: Cape Canopy Tours
Lake Eland Zip Line Tours, KwaZulu-Natal
A 4.5 km-long guided Zipline Tour at KZN’s Lake Eland Game Reserve offers thrills and views. The first slide is the most dramatic — a 1km journey that tops out at speeds of 160 kph. This is followed by two more slides that lead you back to the collection point. Although the “X-Treme Tour” isn’t for children, about a dozen other slides on the regular route accommodate younger participants.
Cost: R490 per person, excluding R80 adult day visitor fee
More info: Lake Eland Game Reserve
The Magaliesberg Canopy Tour, North West
The Magaliesberg Canopy Tour is within easy reach of Johannesburg and just across the Gauteng border with North West. This zipline tour threads a path between the cliffs of one of the world’s oldest mountain ranges and showcases a unique side to the region.
Cost: R795 per person
More info: Magaliesberg Canopy Tour
Zip 2000, North West
Sun City’s Zip 2000 claims it’s the world’s fastest zipline, with some participants hitting speeds of up to 160kph. Although some competitors here and abroad may dispute this, there’s no denying this is a thrilling activity to tick off while touring the popular Valley of Waves. Visitors must already have access to Sun City, and the starting point is a small mountain five minutes from Sun City with views over the Lost City, Valley of Waves, and golf courses.
Cost: R740 per person (excluding Sun City entrance fees)
More info: Zip 2000
Drakensberg Canopy Tour, KwaZulu-Natal
The Drakensberg Canopy Tour is located in an indigenous forest below Cathkin Peak. It claims to have Africa’s first elevated rock face walkway and offers a combination of cliff and treetop platforms. Some slides above the forest are 60 meters high, and the views alone have made this one of the country’s most popular zipline operations.
Cost: R795 per person
More info: Drakensberg Canopy Tour
Tsitsikamma Zipline Tour, Western Cape
Few locations are more scenic and better suited to ziplining than the Garden Route’s Tsitsikamma. The Tsitsikamma Zipline Tour offers eight slides among the trees and over rivers, and a standard tour takes approximately one hour.
Cost: R600 per person
More info: ZiplineTour
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