|
 Dirtopia
and mountain bike trails are basically synonyms for
anyone mountain biking in the Cape Winelands and the
rest of the Western Cape or South Africa for that
matter. The Dirtopia trail centre is situated just
outside Stellenbosch at Delvera on the R44 between
Klapmuts and Stellenbosch. This little piece of
singletrack heaven makes you remember what mountain
biking is all about. It is in the heart of some of the
best mountain biking locations in the Western Cape. At
Delvera there are 3 marked mountain bike trails to
choose from, marked as green, red and black. So there
is something for everyone, easy rolling farm roads to
tight singletrack switchbacks with rocks and little
room for error.
Delvera was easy to
find on the left hand side heading out of Stellenbosh
on the R44 towards Klapmuts. The trail centre is part
of a little complex of buildings including a
restaurant, cheese shop and nursery. At the trail
centre you can get your ride permit for R15 and get a
snack or some forgotten or last minute mtb items.
Owners Meurant and Arina also operate the Dirtopia
Trail Lodge on the Delvera property. I booked in there
for the night and it was great being right there. For
a mountain biking holiday this accommodation is well
situated in the Cape Winelands close to Stellenbosch
and other mountain bike trail options.
 I
didn't choose the best day to go riding with a fierce
cold front approaching the Cape, but it was a case of
now or never so off I went. I decided to ride all of
the routes so that I could get a bit of time in the
saddle and do a nice comparison. The plan was to go
from difficult to easy.
The Porcupine trail
is 15km and marked as red with a new 3km black loop
attached to it. After a couple of kilometres the
riding was clearly heading in an upward direction.
Winding through the vineyards the route headed for the
kop?, that singletrack heaven that I mentioned
earlier. As I climbed the tracks whittled out and
eventually lead into the start of the singletrack. As
was to be expected with legendary "Meurant singletrack"
the planning and construction was great, fully
rideable, well thought and fun. This red route was
indeed red and you needed some good balance skills to
make it around the tight hairpin bends and a bit of
power to get over the rocks.
The black route was a
three kilometre loop off the red route heading up the
the hill. It was clearly not used as much as the red
route and definitely more challenging. The gradient
had increased and the climbing was tough on the rocky
single track. It was great though with a false crest
at the top yielding more views down the other side of
the valley. I was glad to reach the top as I was
thinking if this gets much harder then I am going to
have to start walking, and that's just no on! But that
never happened and soon I was using all of my 4 inches
on travel and going easy on the breaks. Descending on
singletrack requires absolute focus and concentration
as I picked my way down the mountain with kilometres
of singletrack snaking in front of me. The black
decent was definitely a challenge perfect for
adrenalin junkies. A total of 8km of single track is
to be ridden doing the red and black combined.
 Back
onto the red route and it was gradual downhill
following the contoured singletrack. Towards the and
there were a couple of nice little jumps to get some
air off before the track headed into a little wooded
ravine with a wooden bridge and then it was down into
a little forest section. Popping out of the forest it
was back onto the vineyard roads towards the trail
centre. On round two I followed only the red route as
I wanted to see what I had missed out after taking the
black loop. What I got was all the fun sections
without the tough black climb and technical decent, it
was great fun doing all again. After two loops my legs
were starting to feel it, and I was glad that I had
left the easiest for last.
The Vineyard trail is
about 7km and is marked as green. It is no walk in the
park with some nice little ups and downs to make you
work but reward you with a view as well. The really
nice part of it was that it was not technical at all
and included two pieces of easy single track to give
you a taste of what it is like. It was perfect as a
lap of honour for me after doing the red and black.
In the end I did 32km
and it took me just over two and a half hours. Don't
let the short distances deceive you, because the
trails are either technical or steep or both. The 32km
yielded an ascent of 830m which is tough going. It was
awesome mountain biking though, with great trails,
climbs, descents and views all around of the Cape
Winelands.
For more info check
out the Dirtopia website at
www.dirtopia.co.za
More info on
mountain bike trails
|
