Pick the flight you fancy, the land-based activity you love, the watersport you want … this province has pretty well got it all zipped up! Close to the both Pretoria and Johannesburg, the North West province, complete with wide open spaces, rivers and dams, and abundant game, is a great place to escape to for a day, a weekend, or longer. The game-viewing in this province is amazing, with the two flagship destinations being Pilanesberg National Park and Madikwe Game Reserve. In both, you can do the standard vehicle-based safaris, as well as a walking safari, which gets you a lot more in tune with the bush. The birding, too, is excellent, with an overlap of lowveld and Kalahari species. As well as these two big ones, there are a number of smaller reserves, many of which surround dams or vleis, which make them excellent birding and fishing destinations.

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The Magaliesberg, which falls in both Gauteng and the North West, is not a very high range, but its deeply incised rivers have created beautiful, forested kloofs or gorges with cool, tranquil pools and picturesque waterfalls. These make for wonderful kloofing, which is called canyoning in other parts of the world. Kloofing involves following a kloof (or gorge or canyon) downstream by walking, swimming, jumping or abseiling. There is also excellent hiking and climbing in the Magaliesberg. You could also do an escorted abseil, combining a bit of adrenalin with a pretty view.

A really fun and unusual activity is the Magaliesberg Canopy Tour. This is a series of slides set up on strong cables between high platforms. You’re kitted up in a harness and then you “fly” between the platforms, admiring the beautiful cliffs and the lovely trees beneath you. You can control your speed so you can go fast for a rush or do it gently and slowly and appreciate the view. There are also some great overnight hiking trails in the Kgaswane Mountain Reserve near Rustenberg.

A really unusual and rewarding way to start the day is with a hot-air balloon ride before sunrise. The air is calm and still, and you can drift over the valleys and watch the animals and people waking up. The early hour is not chosen just to be romantic – it’s also safer in the cool of the morning before the wind comes up and thermals develop. But, later in the day, when the wind is blowing a bit and the thermals have developed, it’s a good time for gliding. The largest gliding club in South Africa is just on the border of Gauteng and North West. But for a really exciting flight, nothing can beat paragliding. There is a really convenient cableway at Hartbeespoort Dam that can take paraglider pilots to the launch site, which makes the whole thing much less PT.

And the Hartbeespoort Dam is a great place to sail, waterski, paddle or just generally hang out. And there are a whole lot more watersport venues in this province. The Vaal River, which forms the border with the Free State in the south, is another fine place to get away from it all and chill out by the river’s edge. The enormous Bloemhof Dam is also ideal for paddling, fishing, sailing or chilling. Upstream, the much smaller Wolwespruit dam is where you can go after the rather energetic indigenous yellowfish. And, downstream from both dams, close to the Dome Conservancy, there is a lovely, gentle white-water rafting trip. It’s gentle most of the time, that is, but it can be quite interesting indeed if the water level is high.

The Dome Conservancy, which is concentrated on the spectacularly rugged hills that mark the scar of a massive, ancient meteorite impact, is a great place to hike or do some gentle game viewing or bird watching. It’s also one of the more interesting mountain-biking venues around, with some rather challenging routes. This has been the venue of the South Africa National Championships on more than one occasion.

There are horse trails near Klerksdorp, near Rustenberg and close to Magaliesberg, as well as in a few other places scattered around. You can ride an elephant near the Hartbeespoort Dam or in Pilanesberg National Park.

And here’s something you probably never thought of. There’s also surfing and great diving. Yes, the North West province is far from the sea but you can dive in fresh water. In fact, Wondergat, a steep-sided, deep natural sinkhole, is a classic inland dive site. It’s about 36m to the beginning of the cave, which carries on for quite a bit further. It’s also at altitude, which means divers need to plan carefully. There is an on-site dive resort that offers mixed gas fills for technical divers. It’s not just about depth and drama, though. There are some fish and interesting little crabby things, and fascinating stromatolite fossils. And it’s a pretty, shady place to spend the weekend away from the city. A few people have also dived in the Eye of Marico, but there is no infrastructure and getting permission is a tad tricky. And as for the surfing – well, that’s courtesy of the Valley of the Waves at Sun City. This huge pool, complete with palm-fringed, white sand beach, creates artificial waves that you can surf. Just don’t go out behind the shark nets.

Seriously, Sun City may be a really hyped up place, but it has some incredible activities. As well as the surfing – and of course the golf, for which it is famous – there is parasailing and an awesome zip slide. Parasailing is not the same as paragliding. Parasailing is being towed under a parachute behind a boat – kind of like flying. And the zip slide is the longest, highest and scariest one in the world. It’s 280m high and two kilometres long, and it reaches a top speed of 140km/h. Sometimes you’re 100m above the ground, which is pretty scary, and sometimes you’re less than five metres above the ground, which can be even scarier.

Now that’s adrenalin!