Diving with a great white, paragliding high over Cape beaches or coming within metres of a bull elephant on an open-air safari can be daunting for most travellers. More so for the physically challenged, as once-in-a-lifetime adventure experiences like these have seemed practically impossible.

Until now!

Over the past few years several local tour operators have created specially-designed tours to engage the remaining senses of those with sight and hearing impairments, and catering to people who are wheelchair-bound. Who said holidays for the disabled need to be boring and conventional?

Silvia Hill, whose company has been planning specialised adventure holidays for more than five years says, “For the challenged it’s mostly about accessibility and safety.”

 Vivid descriptions of what a tour guide is experiencing, allows a blind person to access the uniqueness of an African Wildlife Safari. According to Hill, the guide will suddenly stop the vehicle and his explanation would be something like this:

"I am quite sure I have just seen a leopard. Ok, definitely, a leopard, she is in beautiful condition, from her size I would say she is a female, but I will confirm this in a few minutes. She is headed straight toward us. She has just stopped, and is half crouching, she is concentrating on something about one hundred metres ahead, Impala, she has seen this herd of Impala...”

 Animal sounds and alarm calls illuminate these explanations. Once the leopard is far out of sight and there is no more danger, those that wish can exit the vehicle to touch the very fresh track or spoor of the animal.

Paragliding made easy, even for the physically challenged. Photo: Endeavour Tours

“Tailoring a disabled person’s holiday according to their specific requirements goes a long way towards ensuring maximum pleasure,” says Russ Smith, a local tour operator specialising in catering to the physically challenged.As with sight and sound, being confined to a wheelchair is no reason to remain in the run-of-the-mill holiday zone. Planning your own itinerary to include destinations that have the necessary accessibility, such as the Addo Elephant Park in Nelson Mandela Bay – which offers horse riding amongst the elephant herds – is an option. But it can become complicated.

Using specialised tour operators gives you access to a well-connected network that has already taken all of the additional requirements of a handicapped holiday checklist into consideration.

Now that you adrenalin and wildlife junkies have our recommendations, all that’s left is for the booking to be made, keeping in mind that these operators cater for all pleasure seekers - not just the challenged. Don’t forget to let us see the pics in your blog post!

Check out our All-access adventure gallerywww.gotravel24.com/index.php