The colourful Orlando Towers host Johannesburg's most exciting adventure centre!

Two weeks ago I reported how Cape Town’s Athlone Towers, the two enormous cooling towers of the decommissioned Athlone Power Station, met their demise in a spectacular controlled implosion.  The Athlone Towers however weren’t the only of their kind in South Africa.  In Soweto, South Africa’s most famous township based on the outskirts of Johannesburg, there is another famous pair of decommissioned cooling towers, the Orlando Towers.  Unlike their counterparts in Cape Town, the Orlando towers were not destined for destruction, but have come to serve another purpose entirely.  Instead, the disused towers were converted into a vertical adventure facility in 2007, the first of its kind in South Africa.

Vertical Adventure… What?

In 2001 rope access specialist Bob Wood was contracted for maintenance operations on the disused towers.  While performing this task, hoisted on a rope 100m above the ground and overlooking the vast metropolis of Johannesburg, Bob was struck by an idea.  Bob thought, as any sane person would, how awesome would it be to fall from here.  Or more precisely, to bungee jump, swing or abseil off these immense towers in the middle of Soweto.  Fast forward six years and Orland Towers, vertical adventure facility was born.

So what can one expect from this oversized playground for adrenaline junkies?  Well, first off to get to the top, where the thrills and fun begins, an external lift will take you up the side of the one tower.  This lift follows the concave structure of the tower, starting off leaning towards the tower, then straightening up, and then leaning towards the ground, 33 stories below, as it reaches the top.  After the lift stops you walk up a floating stairway to the jump platform as the city expands out far below you.  At this point the adrenaline is kicking in and nerves are on edge.  From here one has a choice between a number of extremely fun, albeit terrifying things to do.  For those wishing for a slower descent, abseiling down the tower is the way to go.  The abseil offers 40m drop before contact with the building, after which you can ‘moon jump’ the rest of the way.  For a much faster way down there’s the 100m bungee jump, off a suspension bridge suspended between the two towers.  Alternatively the power swing offers a pendulum style swing between the two cooling towers, guaranteed to take your breath away.  And if that’s not enough, how about trying the Abyss – the world’s first swing inside a cooling tower!

For more information on the Orlando Towers check out the Allabout listing or visit the Orlando Towers website.