Botrivier Bliss

The weekends are rolling by almost too quickly. Rochelle booked a weekend away at Kolkol just outside Botriver some months ago and we both needed the R&R after a pressure filled week. The accommodation consists of a few log cabins that the owner of the farm built. The basics are provided for in style and with a hot tub on the deck and a fire going in the evenings it was pure bliss. Botriver is also conveniently situated close to Thandi trails (14km), Lebanon (18km) and Oak Valley (24km). Our hosts were friendly and helpful with me enquiring about the possibility to link up any of the farm trails to Groenlandberg, but it seemed like that would not be possible. 

Saturday morning I took the opportunity to cycle to Thandi Trails (22km from Kolkol) and decided to do the full loop. My Garmin unfortunately decided to stop working half way through the ride, but lately I've been less concerned about the numbers and focussing on enjoying the ride. 

Thandi trails consists of fun filled singletrack sections broken up by some short and steep climbs. Tight turns, some good switchbacks and twisty single track sections makes the 25 odd kms quite tough. I played around with the Command seatpost that the Stumpy was specced with and was trying to work out how best to use the equipment in race conditions. I also managed to spot some funky mushrooms. 

At Blossom Restaurant where you buy and return your bike board I chatted with some of the other riders who where out on the trail. We shared a coke and some stories and headed off in our own directions afterwards. The ride back to Botrivier ended at the Hotel where I had the best Burger for a whole R35! Rochelle and I both had a Burger and I finished the ride off with an ice cold beer too. You've got to love small towns. 

Back at Kolkol we enjoyed the peace and quiet and opted for an early night. 

Sunday's ride turned out to be such a wonderful surprise. We were quite a large group (about 20 riders) and headed from Botrivier to Greyton. I expected to simply take the back roads, but we ended up doing a 30km stretch of jeep track that was simply amazing. It followed the Railway line from Botrivier inland and we made our way up the climb each at our own pace. I opted to take it easy and had a really nice time catching up with some friends. 

20km in to the ride the rider in-front of me hit a rut badly and went down. I knew that it was going to be bad by the way she fell and the bike was flung from her cleated feet while she was hitting the ground. I had enough time to pick a line past rider and bike without hitting any of the other riders taking evasive action. Fortunately Michelle got up and after doing a full check of bike and rider we continued. I did realise that her tyres were pumped at about 3bar each which probably contributed to the accident and took it down to a more manageable pressure. 

The second 30km flew by and very soon we found ourselves at Searles in Greyton having lunch. The poor waitress and rest of the restaurant staff never knew what hit them. 20 hungry cyclists all demanding food and drink simultaneously sent them into shock. I suspect that they still have not fully recovered from the ordeal. Werner and some of the others were brave enough to cycle back to Greyton, some opted to arrange with family to meet them in Greyton. I opted for the latter and was quite grateful for the ride back. 

Eselfontein weekend!

April is always a good time to be on the bike in South Africa (and Cape Town in particular). The summer winds have died down, the soaring temperatures have abated a bit and the rainy season is not quite upon us yet.

April is as good a time as any to visit one of my all-time favourite mountain bike getaways: Eselfontein. The farm is one of the oldest farms in the Ceres area and boast some really awesome trails. Various distances are available to ride from 10km to 65km, but truth be told, you seldom ride the trail as set out as there are simply too many options and sections that you just have to do again. We opted for the Eco-huts this time around which gets you into a camping vibe without having to pitch tents for only 2 nights stay.

Saturday’s riding was again filled with good humour, some mishaps and a general display of some very good skills too. I can only admire some riders who show no fear and makes difficult sections like Shapiro’s drop look like a walk in the park. The variety of riding conditions also means that even the most skilled amongst our group would never get bored. Sandy and rocky single tracks make way for forest sections with a display of splendid autumn colours as the forest floor was littered with oak leafs in green, yellow and brown. I was so dazed by this scene that I almost missed a turn. I reminded myself that sometimes it’s ok to slow down a bit to admire the surroundings. The notorious tree stump in the Dark Forest was flattened slightly and I rather disappointedly had no trouble riding it this time around. I was secretly hoping to get a bigger challenge here and it was a bit of an anti-climax that the section was tamed a bit. After a few forest sections we started climbing in earnest. Here I decided to pick a light gear and spin my legs out to save myself for the down run that started from the pipe-line section. A few in the group decided to carry on to the top of the pipe-line, but I was just too happy to finally get stuck into the singletrack down run. Shapiro’s proved a bit too much for me still, even with fresh cement. Again the mind is still my biggest enemy with this sort of section. I am sure that if I came up to it for the first time with no warning I would not think twice, but a bad fall a few years ago still sat in the back of my mind.

Other sections that previously challenged me was not as daunting as I remembered and riding with skilled technical riders seems to be rubbing off a bit.

The afternoon was spent eating, chatting and relaxing. At 6pm we started the nigh ride. It’s always fun when the lights come on. I unfortunately lost my main light and decided to turn back after about 15kms. A quick shower and with the fires burning strongly for the evening braai we settled into the evening. The stars are simply amazing at Eselfontein. Even with a half-moon there are more stars in sight than on a new moon at home. Sometimes it is good to step away from the company and go for a quiet walk to appreciate the sounds and sights of the night.

Sunday is always a bitter-sweet day. You look forward to another amazing ride and by now you are very familiar with the first 15km of trail as you would have done it at least twice by now. You also start making calculations of when you want to be home, so take off 2 hours and you know when you should leave Eselfontein and deduct your ride time and you realise that you should be on the bike rather than making calculations. I opted for an early ride as I needed to be home in the afternoon to work on some of the week’s backlogged items.

I opted to take the singletrack through the forests and went up Bergsig climb and over to Philips Creek. I realised that there would not be quite enough time to do dead-man-walking <phew!> and the pipe line track and opted to do Red Bull instead. I had an amazing run through the whole Red Bull without thinking about how fast I was going. It is always great to stitch together a great run like that with very few mistakes just before you climb out of the valley to go pack and leave.

I had an amazing weekend and picked up quite a few subtleties that will improve my riding in the weeks to come. I am really looking forward to our next outing to Eselfontein in May. This coming weekend I am on a weekend away in Botrivier and will definitely be looking to do Paul Cluver / Thandi, Lebanon and Oak Valley before heading back home. Let’s hope we have more of the amazing weather we have enjoyed the weekend past.
watch the youtube footage at:
Eselfontein April 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71qMggfbzrI