South Africa

The Discovery Trail is a unique opportunity for wheelchair users to do a short boarded trail through the succulent valley thicket of the Addo Elephant Park and learn about the Addo ecosystem. There are  two disabled car parking bays, that are wide enough to take side loading vans these lead to a  path which winds through the thicket. The trail is made from a reconstituted plastic material called polywood, giving an extremely smooth ride for wheelchair uses. The path is interspersed with interpretive centres and displays explaining the natural vegetation and wildlife making up Addo's bushveld. For the visually impaired the path is edged with ropes for guidance and at each interpretative centre the displays are also presented in Braille.  There are Braille information boards at the centre.

website: http://www.addoelephant.com/parks/addo/tourism

The Augrabies Falls are the sixth-largest waterfall in the world. Centrepiece of the National Park named after it. The gorge, a mighty example of granite erosion, is 240 metres deep and 18 kilometres long. Few sights are as awesome or as deafening as water thundering down the 56-m Augrabies Waterfall when the Orange River is in full flood. The Khoi people called it the place of Great Noise. The reception, shop, information displays, cafeteria are all paved and ramped.  There is an   accessible toilet within the shop.  After many years of limited access to the Falls, there is now a superb accessible boardwalk and series of accessible viewing platforms . Although the natural terrain makes the gradient steep in parts, wheelchair users can now enjoy great views of the falls either independently or with minimum assistance

Phone:	+27 (0)12 428 111
website:	www.sanparks.org/parks/augrabies

Cheetah Outreach is an education and community-based programme created to raise awareness of the plight of the cheetah and to campaign for its survival. Cheetah Outreach works to promote the cause of the cheetah by introducing captive-born, hand-reared cheetahs as ambassadors. Shadow and the five other captive cheetahs housed at Cheetah Outreach are used the ambassadors of their species   For tourists with mobility aids there are ramps to the visitors’ centre.  Tourists in wheelchairs are able to meet habituated cheetah.   However please bear in mind that although the pathways throughout the venue are generally accessible for wheelchairs this is an outdoor venue which can be very wet and muddy in winter and some wheelchairs have difficulty with the gravel of the pathways.   

Phone:	27 (0)21881 3242
e-mail:	cheetah@inetekom.co.za
website:	http://www.cheetah.co.za

Along the South Coast of South Africa lies one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in the world, home to the Garden Route National Park. It is unique in Africa as the only area in which rainfall occurs throughout the year. Walks and Trails are one of the major ecotourism attractions of the park not suitable for wheelchair users. There are however trails in the park that are suitable for wheelchair users and others with mobility challenges.  At Nature’s Valley there is a short circular route adjacent the Groot River. This trail is a boardwalk with no muddy or sodden ground. The trail passes through virgin forest and is a great way for a wheelchair user to leave the signs of human development behind and with a bit of stealth get some great sightings of forest birds and mammals.

Phone:	(044) 302 5600
website:	http://www.sanparks.org/parks/garden_route/