We're ready for the FIFA world cup (with cycling in between of course!)

Ok, so I'm a few weeks late in celebrating Nelson Mandela's 91st birthday but here's a great photo, courtesy of http://www.capetowndailyphoto.com.

I saw this great artwork the other day and what you can't quite see from the photo, is that it made from a collection of children's painted hands.

As if that's not cool enough, this isn't even an advert or billboard-it's a barrier for a building site! If only other building contractors would do the same, I'm sure we wouldn't mind all the mess and noise they make whilst making our city a better place to live.

FIFA Football World Cup and cycling holiday

Our new Cape Town Stadium is looking very impressive! It's hard to
imagine what the World Cup is going to bring to South Africa but we can
assure you that our 3 day singletrack tours between World Cup matches
will get your heart pumping!
Check out our 'Specials' Page on our website
(http://www.irideafrica.com) for more information.
-D

Special Events

Check our website for more details. Don't miss these events!

The Burger Road race tour takes place from 27th November to 6th December 2009
The FIFA World Cup Tours take place in June and July 2010

Observations and thoughts

Lately, I have been thinking. Most would suggest that this was not a wise move in the first place, but I was never famous for taking sensible advice, and I had little else to do after contracting the now infamous Swine Flu (it didn't live up to the hype by any means, by the way), so there you have it!
As well as thinking, mind you, I have also been observing.

Firstly, I observed Dan's stories and pics (below) of the trails he's finding and riding.

Then, I observed South Africa's Greg Minnaar (current leader) have an absolutely dismal weekend at Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada World Cup DH round number 5. He punctured in the qualification, and then crashed in the final (hard enough to lose a glove!) and ended up 22nd. With Sam Hill successfully managing to close the gap by taking 1st, and Peaty taking 2nd, the World Cup is wide open with two rounds to go and just over 200 points seperating the top four riders! All-in-all, not great for Greg, but definitely great for the sport. I'm not a nail-biter, but if I was I'd be shopping for prosthetics already.

Most often over-looked because of Greg's successess, let's not forget Andrew Neethling who is currently ranked 11th overall!

I also observed the fact that South Africa's Burry Stander is currently coming a more-than-respectable 3rd in the World Cup XC competition - I shall be removing my blinkers and following this more closely from now on!

So that's where I started thinking. It goes without saying that South African's are well on the map when it comes to the racing scene, but isn't it time that you - the people that really make the sport of mounatin biking what it is - experience the land and the trails where the pedegrees of our world-class riders were born? Of course it is!

The great thing now, is that it really is as easy as booking the flight and sticking your bike in a bag and arriving in beautifull Cape Town, as we can take care of the rest for you!

Okay, that's it, smoke coming out the ears has activated the fire alarm, enough thinking for one day, I'm going to go back to my Tom Waits and blueberries now. Maybe even do some work, who knows.

Cheers
Harry

New mountain biking trail

There have been whisperings and rumours about a fantastic new mountain bike trail in Wellington. Secret smiles between riders who have ridden there have been noticed and noted by yours truly and finally became too much to ignore.

It was mid-winter in Cape Town and the sun was shining yet again. Is it just me or does it seem that we have had all our good winter weather in the weekend? With the temperatures in the mid 20's we couldn't resist travelling the hour and a half to Wellington and trying out the new mountain bike trails on Welvanpas Farm.

The parking lot was already quite full when we arrived. A good sign considering it's a rather new mountain biking venue and not many Cape Town cyclists know about it yet. That is all about to change though, because these trails are some of the finest in the Cape for sure, with unique views of Table Mountain, perfect single track, testing climbs and scream inducing descents.

We set off on the "easy" route which was a measly 7 kilometers long on the South facing slope of the valley. About 3 kilometers into the ride I decided that we had gone the wrong way and must have been riding on the "tough" route. The climbs were viscous! Even the slopes of Plum pudding seemed easier than these and I found it hard to imagine that there was a harder route on the other side of the valley. The saving grace though, was that the climbs were short, interspersed with beautiful bench-cut single track or flatter sections of farm road that allowed you to recover before the next brutal section. I was informed a bit later that we were, in fact, on the easy route and that I'd be tested a lot more on the other side. Oo'er!

On the very first singletrack we knew there was something special about this place- the soil was a solid red colour and ultra sticky from the recent rains. It was a great change from the usual terrain we experience in the Western Cape and it reminded me a lot of the Hilton forests in Natal.

We finally seemed to reach a section of downhill and I freewheeled down it, not knowing what to expect. The pace quickened as the slope dropped away and soon I was grinning ear to ear as the perfectly groomed trail swept bike and rider from side to side between fun little swooping dips.

The next section of downhill was the most fun I've had on a bike in a long time. Perfectly spaced sweeping corners with a little bit of tech every 3rd corner or so -it was like carving on a snowboard! As we dropped towards the river there was even an exciting, steep little gully to ride through(there is an easier alternate line as well).

The ride back towards the farmhouse meanders along a beautiful river with nice easy singletrack flowing as nicely as the river itself. Part of our group ended the ride as we got back to the farmhouse where you can partake in some wine tasting or enjoy a snack and coffee in the shop.







We carried onto the harder five kilometer route on which the uphill broke me on my single speed Voodoo. I hate to admit it but I actually had to walk up a section in fear of my heart busting out of my chest. It's a constant climb up jeep and singletrack but I can honestly tell you that it's worth every drip of sweat. The trail bends back on itself and the fifteen minute climb is reversed into about 5 minutes of exhilarating, fast and exposed singletrack downhill that leads back to the farmhouse.

All in all it is an incredibly beautiful place to ride, the trails are well made with brilliant lines

(you won't find your normal boring straight-line singletrack trails through the orchards here!) and the downhills are massively smile inducing. The only criticisms I have are that the signing needs to be bigger and the hills might be a bit steep for beginners or less fit riders (but that can always be fixed by making more trails and route options, right?!)

As I've said on iRide Africa's Facebook page
"If farmers keep building trails like this, there's no need to go to heaven when we die!"

The Knysna 'almost epic'

I groggily wake up on an air mattress that has slowly, through the quiet hours of the night, become neither a mattress nor 'air' related in any way. A figure stirs below the mezzanine floor on which we are sleeping and throws a few pine cones and some wood onto the dying embers of the fire. The fire is soon crackling loudly and the entire cabin warms up enough to risk getting out of my sleeping bag and watch the sun-rise over a massive expanse of ancient, indigenous forest. There is so much potential for epic rides in this area it makes my mind boggle and crave for some coffee stimulation.

Our generous hosts, Andre' and Wodie prepare coffee and soon their little children are scurrying around, screaming and enjoying life to the full, as I wish I could do so early in the morning.

Raoul and I have been trying to sneak out on a long, fast, epic ride together for days. Word of our secret plans spread and the group grows to a few more. In fact, before we know it we are five people crammed into two cars (Thanks again to Andre and Wodie) with four bikes and are meeting Dave Mckay and Steve Burnett on route to the Homtini Trail, deep in the woods behind Knynsa.

We spot Dave and Steve at the meeting point, but we don't spot their car. It turns out they don't have one. After a few choice swear words from me, we manage to fit an extra two bikes and two people into the cars and drive into an unknown forest, without a map, without directions and without a GPS- all the ingredients that can lead to an epic!

We find the forest station easily enough, build our bikes up and try to make some kind of strategy about the ride and where Louise can pick us up. It turns out that none of us know the trail very well and were all counting on each other to lead the way! Louise pays for the riding permits as a trickle of rain begins- I am miffed about this but not as miffed as Raoul who has taken my bad advice and not brought along any warm layers as "it's never cold once you're riding in the forests". The rest of us don our warmer clothes (it is mid winter after all!) and we set off on a 7km descent through the forest roads.

We enjoy the freedom of scuttling and bouncing down the hairpins after being cramped in the cars for the morning. The pace is nice and slow much to Ruan Erasmus' frustration (the young and the restless), but he is meant to be on a recovery day so I don't feel too bad. I slow down the group even more trying to get some video footage of the ride but everybody is in holiday mode and the forests' sense of calm seems to be spreading to those riding through it.

Eventually the downhill runs out and we pay our dues as we climb upwards for a few kilometers. Suddenly the darkness of the moist forest recedes and we burst out into a sunbathed section of grassland and fynbos, just long enough to heat up our bodies before we plunge downwards once more into the forest on a beautiful forest road with tight, blind corners and some tricky little sections. After doing some more video work, I find myself all alone at the bottom of a valley. I cycle downwards until I reach a river and have to stop at the absolute beauty of the spot.

I feel totally alone in this forest now, with giant ferns fighting for their space between the 800 year old yellow-woods. The Knysna Lourie makes a bold appearance, swooping through the canopy, his blood red wings giving him away. I kneel down for a sip of water from the black stained river water and start on my way up.

And up. And up. It's a 4 kilometer long climb before I meet up with the rest of the group but actually it doesn't feel all that bad considering that we're 16km into the ride by now and have only had to climb properly twice. That said, I notice that Dave has become very quiet- a sure sign that he is starting to feel some pain and my legs are starting to realise that they have not done enough riding lately.

The Homtini trail is all about the scenery, there's not too much to tax your legs and your mind. That is, until you hit the last 5 or so kilometers. The forest road gives way to a beautiful, descending singletrack that flows really nicely and has some interesting rooty bits to keep you on your toes. We exit the trail whooping and hollering and generally behaving like a bunch of yanks before crossing over the N2 highway into the Harkerville forest.

We've written about the Harkerville forest before (see http://irideafrica.com/tour-options/single-track-tour-information/singletrack tours) and it's probably true enough to say that this place is pedal paradise. Our group is quietly happy that we are in known territory once again and have ridden for about two and a half hours now. We find ourselves taking it easy though, as we know we have much singletrack to ride here and still have to have enough sense and energy to navigate through the forests back to Knysna.

By some coincidence, Ruan gets a call from his mother just as we are about to drop out of cell phone coverage. The news isn't good, we need to return one of the cars to her as she needs to get some important shopping done. The problem is we are in the middle of a forest, on bicycles, with no communication and no idea how to get the car back to her. There's nothing for it but to hammer on down the singletrack until we get back into phone coverage. We start speeding things up a bit and before long Ruan comes short (just out of video footage!) and takes what sounds like, a spectacular stumble.

He loses his phone in the process so we walk back and I instantly recognise that it's the same place that I had a huge stack on a few months ago. There's a crafty, faster line right between 2 little trees that grow on either side of the line. I was following my sister down there when I tried to take the faster line. It didn't turn out to be the faster line. Let's just leave comments about my skills out of it and say that my bars were just 1cm too wide and my tuck and roll technique was put to use. So the search for Ruan's phone commences and while we do eventually find it, we also discover that it must be a place that many a mountain biker has had his/her pride broken.

The proof lies in the scattered remains of many an accident. Amongst the findings are water bottles (unfortunately not the one I lost in my accident), torn helmet straps, a pair of broken sunglasses and the tell tale signs of "involuntary bush removal" all around the area. The two trees stand testament to the mini-battles between them and cyclists. The trees have chunks of bark missing from them, all at a constant height above the ground...Handlebar height. It definitely appears as though the trees are winning the war here and so we leave them in peace, with one more battle notch.

One reason Harkerville rides are so great is that you get to experience riding in dark, cool indigenous forest and then suddenly pop out on top of massive cliffs above the Indian Ocean, surrounded by fynbos and covered in sunlight. We followed the route onto the edge of the cliffs where we took a short lunch break and tried to get Dave to be a bit more talkative i.e. feed him. He mumbled a few words, something like, "still gotto run a marathon....get myself into these rides....pecan pie" and then stopped talking again. I took that opportunity to steal myself a few of his jelly babies so that I could avoid the same fate (I at least, still knew that we had a very long way to go!)

The climb back up to the forests are always an arduous affair, and 4 hours into the ride, this one is no different. People are a bit quieter but there's no grumpiness yet. Ruan is the only one with tonnes of energy left. He is racing fit and darting ahead and waiting all the time, much like a hyperactive Jack Russell. We try to avoid the big climb out of the valley by putting our trust in the woefully inaccurate maps given to cyclists and (as always) get back on the incorrect, boring route home. Luckily Steve and I catch our navigation error in time and can make alternative plans to get back on track.

By now communications are back up and Mannie and Ruan decide to leave the group and get picked up by Louise, so that they can grab a lift to the other car and return the car to Wodie, and Louise can then join the rest of us in the pub later and....Well, it's all very complicated and we didn't even know what we were really doing, so that's enough of that ramble.

And then there were four. Raoul, Steve, Dave and myself set off in the direction of Knynsa in the hope of finding more singletrack but really just hoping that we can find Knynsa. We run out of map but are not really worried as both Steve and myself have "built in compasses" in our heads. The only problem was that they both pointed to a different magnetic North! The conversation went some thing like this:
Steve: "Ok so North is errr, that way, so Knysna must be over there"
Daniel: "Well, I would say North is more like there" (pointing in a totally different direction)
Steve: "The tree's don't lie, Dan! North is that way, check the rings"
Daniel: "Hmmm, OK tree whisperer, lets follow your direction for a while then"
Daniel: (whispering to Dave) "The guy's nuts! What are these rings he's talking about?"
Dave: "Hmmm? Hmsphric...ffffck....pecan pie...."

After a while we reach a compromise of alternating between Steve's and my built-in compass'. Whilst definitely not the shortest route home, this zigzagging way of orienteering eventually allows us to spot the famous Knysna heads (waaaay in the background) through a gap in the forest and confirm that this new method was working well for us. In fact, I am so relieved that I point the landmarks out to Dave and upon realising how far away they still are, he actually manages to string a few choice words together. I can't quote them though as his response is not repeatable on this blog.

Five hours into the ride and we eventually start smelling home. On one particularly steep climb we stop at the top, watching Dave climb up and consider mugging him for the rest of his jelly babies and leaving him for dead. As he grinds, hacks and cusses up the climb, the conversation evolves- something about eating squirrels and bait or maybe it was squirrels eating us, my mind and body were also starting to go at this point so I cannot report accurately.

Five and a half hours after we started we find ourselves outside the nearest pub from the trail we've just exited. It's one of Knysna's busiest times of the year and, can you believe it? The pub is closed! Lady Louise comes to the rescue as she turns up in the parking lot with a knowledge of how we must be feeling and turns out beers, chips and chocolate which are devoured at an insane pace. We chat and laugh about the ride and decide that it wasn't really an EPIC ride as none of us got really lost, none of us blew in spectacular fashion (Sorry Dave, you hit the wall with grace) and we didn't have to eat any road kill along the way.
The pub owner sees the rabble outside his establishment and decides to open up, get us inside and feeds us lovely sweet local brew and huge plates of 'slap' chips. Before long, I am cramping, the smiles are back, Dave is talking again and the rest of the rabble have all turned up on some spectacularly neon coloured bikes and we all sit back and relax after another tough day in Africa.

Epic rides- Genesis

South Africa is riding heaven. There's no two ways about it, whether you ride on the road or in the mountains. The catch is that only a tiny percentage of the rides on it's roads, passes and trails have ever been documented and shared with the cycling community.

Herewith starts a diary of some of the best riding offered here. A few of them are tough and some of them are full blown epics but all of them are aimed at getting out there, exploring, sweating and having a story to tell at the end.

We hope that people around South Africa will join us, to share their favourite rides with us so that, eventually, we all have a worthy story to tell.

Look out for our first story soon. Below is a picture taken recently in George, to get you in the mood.

De Hoop nature reserve

It's been a long time since I've been able to stand and turn in a 360-degree circle and not see one hint of human civilization for as far as the eyes could see. That is exactly what De Hoop Nature Reserve offered us, when we visited there last week.

We pitched up, dusty, dirty and without a reservation and the result was in fact, a very pleasing one! We were plopped into a nice couch, in front of a blazing fireplace and were offered free filter coffee and biscuits while they sorted out where we could stay. Nice start!

The day only got better as we walked to our newly organised accommodation to find we were the only ones occupying the quaint and very well appointed 'rondawels', right in front of a sprawling vlei teaming with birdlife and offering the most amazing view of pure wilderness I have yet to see in the Western Cape.

We jumped on our bikes to set off on what we thought would be a boring ride through the fynbos and were pleasantly surprised (or scared shtlss!) as a gigantic Eland bull emerged from the bushes right in front of us and got as much of a fright as us, resulting in it charging down the jeep track towards safety. The great appeal to De Hoop is that cyclists get free roam of all the tracks and paths, otherwise reserved only for the staff. This coupled with the fact that the animals don't fear cyclists (like they do humans on foot or car), means you can really see a lot of wildlife and also get really, really close to it should you be brave enough! We rode at a slow and leisurely pace through the jeep tracks (surprisingly not sandy, being this close to the coast!) for about 15km and managed to see Eland, the rare Bontebok, a huge male Ostrich, Cape Mountain Zebra and some fantastic birdlife (African fish eagle, pelicans, robins, herons, cormorants, shrikes) all from the seat of our saddle. Believe me when I tell you it's a very different experience than viewing game from a car- you feel very vulnerable and exposed!

To top it off, we cycled towards the beach, dumped our bikes and climbed a dune only to be greeted by no less than 10 Southern Right Whales dancing for each other in the ocean below us! We sat on the dunes fascinated by their lobtailing, breaching and spyhopping before cycling back to camp in search of some more challenging trails.


Most of the riding here is on very flat, unchallenging jeep tracks and so I led Louise to the hiking trail on the way home. This was more like it! Nice rocky, technical singletrack allowed us to get home but at a cost! Once you are focussed on the trail, you tend to miss much more wildlife and don't get the same sense of awe and inspiration from the area, so it really is better that most of the riding in the reserve is on easy jeeptrack. The other cost was me going over the handlebars in a tricky section and really battering myself up in the process-rather embarrassing in an area known by cyclists for its un-technical, flat trails!

We got back to our cosy beds and realised we din't have any food with us. Lucilky there is a fantastic pub and restaurant in the reserve and upon arrival, we were told they were having a fancy Christmas in July feast. Talk about getting your timing right! So we joined the other guests under a massive milkwood tree, surrounding a blazing bonfire and devoured an amazing 3 course meal for R100 (less than £10!), whilst meeting new and interesting people from all over the country.

Anyhow, De Hoop will definitely be on our list for future visits . It is a soul-healing place where city dwellers get to experience all of Africa's best- huge space, fire-red sunsets, friendly people and a fish eagle's cry to wake you up in the morning.

Cycle, Commute, Cape Town!

So who says commuting is dead in South Africa? The (terrible- sorry I had a few beers in me!) picture on the right was taken on a random Friday night in Cape Town. A spontaneous invite for a braai at my place resulted in probably half of the group arriving on their bikes. Good on ya guys!

Of particular interest (well, to cyclists anyway)is the variety of bikes-in this one photo there is a fixie, a cyclocross bike, a couple of mountain bikes and a jump bike.

The real interesting part is that most of these bikes belonged to the fairer sex- so the message is clear, if you want to hook up with a girl who shares your love of cycling, come to South Africa and join us on one of our holidays!