The Best of South Africa for the Adrenaline Junkie

I don't like to brag. 

Ok fine, that's not entirely true, let me re-phrase that. This post is meant to be informative and not simply to stroke my raging ego.  

But I must admit I did some pretty crazy-awesome stuff on my recent trip to South Africa, and I feel a duty to tell you about it in case you ever want to go.

From Kruger National Park to Cape Town, here's my list of the:

Top 5 Most Adventurous Things to do in South Africa

1. A Private Safari in Kruger National Park.

Kruger National Park is the biggest wildlife reserve in all of South Africa where you can see the entire "Big Five" in one afternoon. 

Connected to Kruger, is a private reserve known as Sabi Sands, where the rich and fabulous helicopter in to get an up-close look at the animals. Due to more resources and a higher density of animals, you can check a lion and a leopard off your must-see list on one drive.

And they get close!

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Whitney, who do think we are, the Romney's??"

When I first searched for game lodges in Sabi Sands, I was extremely disheartened to find that the majority went for an upwards of $3,000 per person, per night.

After extensive research though, I found a great deal from the Idube Safari Lodge. 

For a very reasonable price you can stay at their lodge for two nights and their sister lodge in the main Kruger park, Lukimbi, for two more nights. 

Breaking up our safari gave us a chance to see the varied regions of Kruger.

The result: an thrilling face-to-face encounter with a pride of four male lions in Sabi. 

They were literally two ft from our jeep, their intense golden eyes staring right at us. 

 Epic.

A stand-off with an angry bull "in musth."  

Think Tiger Woods in Vegas...after the scandal.

This guy was about to charge our vehicle and actually blew a trunk-full of sand at us as a warning.

...and an up-close chill session with a humongous pod of hippos during a nature walk through the wild, expansive Kruger park.

 Don't let their cute faces fool you, these things are extremely aggressive and dangerous.

Hippos kill more people each year than lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, and buffaloes, combined.

Though the guides at all of these lodges are well trained and highly knowledgeable (shout out to AndyInTheWild), your blood will be pumping when you're looking a wild animal dead in the eye. 

It's the ultimate rush.

Check out some of the videos from Idube's own Rob the Ranger on YouTube.

2. Monkeying Around at the Cape of Good Hope

Hanging out with some seemingly friendly baboons may seem a little tame compared to our other activities, but when a pack of about 25 primates overtakes your car, you may not be so calm.

 While driving through the Cape of Good Hope, these monkeys went ape-sh*t on a tourist van.

It was seriously like a scene out of Planet of the Apes, but sadly James Franco wasn't there to save us.

If that's not wild enough for you, catch a case of vertigo looking out over Cape Point. 

These pics do not do it justice. If you don't have a fear of heights yet, you'll develop one here.

3. Great White Shark Cage Diving, Gansbaai.

About two hours from Cape Town, is a little place you might have heard of called 

Shark Alley. 

Yep, the very same place you've watched countless seals get slaughtered on the Discovery Channel every year during Shark Week.

For about $200 a pop they'll toss you in a cage and literally feed you to the sharks. 

Well, techinically they feed the sharks fish heads but you get the picture.

What's scarier than the Great White's though, is the water temperature. 

Though I posed like this for the pictures...

This is how I really felt...

I was like Mary-Kate Ashley. "My nose was froze, my toes were froze, my kimono was froze."

4. Paragliding off Lion’s Head, Cape Town.

You know those guys you see jumping off cliffs and flying around on mini parachutes, well you too can do that with no experience whatsoever.

Super safe.

At Lion’s Head mountain in Cape Town they offer tandem paragliding. You just run, jump, and the instructor will do the rest.

And if the simple launch off the cliff isn’t exciting enough for you, ask them to do a corkscrew in the air.

Just make sure you bring a change of pants. Sorry, that was gross and unnecessary.

5. Abseiling down Table Mountain, Cape Town.This was by far the craziest thing I’ve ever done, and I’ve done some crazy shiz. Just ask my friends (or don’t, I don’t need that stuff getting out).

Picture standing backward on the edge of a 3,563 foot mountain with only a rope around your waist. Then falling backward.

I imagine it’s how Paris Hilton feels while waiting for the results of her latest STD test.

Though we only went down the first 300 feet of the famous Cape Town mountain, it was by far the scariest and most exhilarating thing I’ve ever done.

If you have the balls, don’t miss this activity.

If you're interested in more awesome things to do in SA just email me and I'll fill you in: english.whitney@gmail.com There are so many other amazing things to do in this beautiful country.

And, if you've done anything more hardcore than me, I want to know! Tell me below....

And stay tuned for some African diet and fitness tips I picked up on my trip. They've got so much more than BBQ warthog down there. 

But of course they have plenty of BBQ warthog too.