Entry to paradise costs two fifty. We stand at the gate to the Oak Valley wine and fruit farm. Here we have to pay the friendly gatekeeper the equivalent of 30 Rand. We have winemaker Peter Visser to thank for the pleasure we will experience over the next two hours. Not because we want to try his first-class, award-winning Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, but because we want to try his trails. The winemaker has also built wonderful single trail courses on his farm, which is located around an hour north-east of Cape Town. As a winemaker and mountain biker, the South African has perfectly combined his two passions. Nobody knows the landscape in the Oak Valley as well as he does. The "loops", as the locals call the circuits, are composed like a fine wine.
The Oak Valley farm was founded in 1898 - and exactly 110 years later, the "Mountain Biking Experience" was created here in 2008. That year, the farm was also the first stop on the Cape Epic stage race. And that brings us to the popular topic of "chicken and egg". The number of mountain bike areas in the Western Cape province is estimated to have tripled in the last ten years. Do 1200 bikers now take part in the Cape Epic every year because there are so many good trails in South Africa? Or are more and more wine estates and forestry areas building more trails because the Epic race is so successful? It doesn't really matter. For us Europeans, the Cape of Good Things becomes the last hope in autumn and winter. The perfect getaway destination when it gets really grubby here. At the end of November and beginning of December, the trails south of the equator are already pithy and dry. From the end of February, the bike season is in full bloom. It doesn't come to an end until the end of April.
The complete 10-page trail and MTB tour report on South Africa with the best spots in the Cape can be found below as a PDF download.
BIKE is also available as a digital edition.
