The team at Oribi Gorge’s Wild 5 Adventures went all out to ensure a mishap at its wild swing was resolved quickly and safely when the winch motor used to raise adrenaline-junkies back to the jump point failed on Wednesday this week.

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A teen (18) who had taken the leap from edge of the waterfall, swinging into the gaping depths of Oribi Gorge, was left suspended about 60 metres at the bottom of the swing, for around two hours before being  brought to safety.

Situated at the top of Lehr’s Waterfall in Oribi Gorge, the Wild 5 Swing is the highest swing of its kind in the world – some 165m or 55 storeys  high.

Speaking to the Herald, Paul Jefferys, owner of Wild 5 said Noel Labuschagne of Wild 5 Adventures abseiled down to the teen, while K9 Search and Rescue officers and paramedics from Med-Evac Emergency Services stood by at the bottom of the gorge as a precautionary measure.

Once she was safely on the ground, the group set off on a 25 minute trek back up to where her family was waiting for her.

Glen Preston of Med-Evac said the teen had not been injured.

“She was just tired and little hypothermic  so after hydration and warming (the climb up helped) she was fine.”

“Everything was under control. Our Wild 5 staff are fully trained to handle a ‘pick-off’ situation. Noel has recently been specifically retrained to respond to this type of situation. The reason we called the emergency services  was because of the wet weather conditions, and the fact that it was getting cold,” said Mr Jefferys.

He added that the winch motor had had a major overhaul at the beginning of the season, and he had called for a special investigation by the electrical company into why it failed.

According to Mr Jefferys, the motor is weatherproof to allow them to operate safely in the wet, so there was no water ingress into the motor, but the insulation on one of the wires to the brake of the motor was faulty which caused it to trip.

“Standard procedure for any equipment failure is to execute a ‘pick-off”. We have a back-up generator for power failures. It was nothing unusual and not out of the ordinary,” he added.