By TOM SIMS
Published in the NY Times: April 6, 2012 (as seen here)

CAPE TOWN — I’ve made my way to South Africa, a country that has rapidly been evolving into a paradise for adventure and sports tourism. The menu of possibilities it offers is rich, thanks both to the dramatic landscape of mountains, cliffs and the ocean’s edge at the tip of the continent, and the efforts of the government to draw more tourists like me.
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SATourism
Abseiling off Table Mountain above Cape Town and the Atlantic Ocean.
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SATourism
A canopy tree-top tour in Tsitsikamma Forest.
In the 1990s, after the end of apartheid, foreign tourism grew by 13.4 percent a year. The pace slowed somewhat the next decade but remained a swift 7 percent annually. These days, 11.6 million foreign visitors enter the country each year, according to the government. The country’s ambitious tourism authorities are now aiming to more than double the money the industry contributes to the economy in its effort to lift the standard of living of a nation of 50 million people, a quarter of whom are unemployed and live on about a dollar a day.

The World Cup in 2010 played a big role in making South Africa a popular tourist destination, especially as a sports venue. Since then, the country has been trying to keep up the momentum by attracting lesser-known events. Last October the country played host to the skateboarding world championship, known as the Maloof Money Cup. Primarily, however, the nation is banking a lot on individual tourists and their spirit for adventure. Here are some of the possibilities ahead of me:

Abseiling Most visitors begin their South African journey in Cape Town, and it is the city’s landmark Table Mountain where adventure is right outside the back door. The mountain is a flat plateau that stretches about three kilometers, or two miles, from end to end, jutting almost straight up from the coastline to more than 1,000 meters, or 3,281 feet, above sea level and creating stunning sheer cliffs.

In a speech naming the area a national park, then-President Nelson Mandela called Table Mountain “a beacon of hope” that he could see from his prison on Robben Island. For him, it was a symbol of South Africa’s “long, arduous and challenging climb.”

Now Cape Town — and one outfit in particular — are capitalizing on the descent. Abseil Africa offers people the chance to step off the cliff at the peak of Table Mountain and ease their way down pure vertical space in a controlled 112-meter descent, with amazing views of the city and the Atlantic Ocean below.

Abseil Africa markets itself as the “world’s highest commercial abseil,” and it will cost you 595 rand, or $76. (The company also organizes guided hikes up to the top, but most people opt for the cable car.)

Much else of what South Africa has to offer adventurers is a bit further off the beaten track.

Zip sliding Avid abseilers probably will find zip sliding a thrill. Also known as a foefie slide, flying fox or canopy tour, a zip slide is a suspended cable that allows an individual to use gravity to travel from one end to the other on a pulley. They are believed to have originated in the forests of Costa Rica for research purposes.

About 170 kilometers northeast of Cape Town is the town of Ceres, home of Ceres Zip Slide Tours, which advertises itself as the longest zip slide in Africa. It offers eight slides that range from 100 meters to 290 meters in length, for a total of 1.4 kilometers.

One zips above the Koekedouw River in the Skurweberg mountains over carnivorous plants like the sundew. The region is remembered for a magnitude-6.3 earthquake in 1969 that was felt as far away as Durban. The tour gained a bit of fame last year when Dieter Voigt, a former Mr. South Africa, paid Ceres a visit as host of the lifestyle TV show “Pasella.” “I’m not afraid of heights,” Mr. Voigt told the organizers on his show as he was about to slide. “So let’s keep it that way.”

Gawie le Roux of Ceres Zip Slide says that the 16-millimeter cable can accommodate 16 tons. But just to be safe, those who weigh more than 120 kilograms, or 265 pounds, are not permitted to participate. The average group of eight people takes 60 to 90 minutes to complete and costs 400 rand.

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