Trails

In early 2008 The Tygerberg MTB Club was invited to give a presentation to the Tygerberg Renosterveld Conservancy on the topic of building mtb trails to raise funds for Renosterveld conservation. It was perceived that hikers or horse-riders would not pay to access the special areas of Renosterveld, but riders who have a ‘pay-to-play’ mentality would gladly stump up cash for the privilege. 

Meurant Botha was commissioned by the Conservancy to produce a blue-print document detailing the size and scope of the project, PPA funding was secured for the study, and by mid 2008 Meurant and Adrian Winsor, Secretary of the TmtbC, started touring the farmlands ‘interviewing’ landowners to see who would be interested in the project, and who wouldn’t. 

 

Over the next 12 months a list of likely venues and partners was compiled, with the Hillcrest Wine Farm emerging as the pilot project site. The owners were extremely keen to see the project up and running as fast as possible, and finally, in June 2009, work started on a 7km route that was a mixture of farm tracks and singletrack. With some extra funding from AMArider, the work was completed just in time to hold the Western Cape Cross-Country (XC) series race on 29th August, and opened to rave reviews. 

 

In October, Adrian and Club member Braam Louw, started work on a second 7km route at Hillcrest which was completed some 6 weeks later. Shortly after that, the neighbouring farm of Contermanskloof, owned by the Starke Family, with the help of Meurant Botha, completed their privately owned and managed 15km trail, that is a mixture of Downhill and XC.

The ball had started rolling, and the next target was identified as Meerendal Wine Farm. Negotiations had begun 14 months prior, but it took a change of management to seal the deal. Braam and Adrian poured over Google maps, walked the contours, scrambled over rocks and streams and finally emerged with a plan to build 3 inter-leading trails totalling 15kms in distance. Work started in April 2010 and took over 10 weeks, with some sections taking a huge amount of materials and labour to complete. It is the most expensive trail to date, and still needs more work doing to it to ensure it is weather proof enough to be a truly year-round experience. The 3 km blue route was added in September to take the total to 18kms. 

 

In June 2010, a 7km trail was completed through Kliprug, a small farm nestled between Hillcrest and Contermanskloof. This was seen partly as an extension to Hillcrest but also as an alternative route back from Contermanskloof, and is nicknamed ‘The Wild Side’ due to it’s slightly rough and ready nature, rocky paths, absolute remoteness, and interaction with wildlife and cows.

 

In between all the building, negotiations had been going on with other landowners to create ‘Green Corridors’ to link up the different riding areas, and create a super trail where riders can safely ride for many kms without coming into contact with cars. Thus The Majik Forest was linked through D’Aria, Bloemendal and Nitida to Hillcrest, and Meerendal is linked back to Contermanskloof and Hillcrest via Hoogelegen.  The green corridors are a member’s only privilege, and not open to members of the public. 

Work is ongoing to extend the trail system until the potential 120km is reached, with funding coming predominantly from the sale of club memberships, this is anticipated to happen within two years.