Eselfontein Getaway: Finale and video!

Sunday was our last day at Eselfontein and we spent the morning reluctantly packing up and getting everything ready to leave soon after our ride. After Saturday's tough ride, we unanimously decided to not set the bar as high for the last day.

We only had one trail in mind: Red Bull hill. Unfortunately there was no friendly farmers or bakkie-assisted uplifts in sight and we had to put foot to pedal and cycle up and up and up!

With some exploring and navigating we were soon at the top of the hill where we took a breather and enjoyed some snacks before starting the flowing descend into the forrest. Luck was with us this time and we managed to reach the river crossing on the jeep track leading back to the huts without any punctures. Except for Riaan, who managed to stay puncture free the whole trip, until then!

Photos by Madeleine and Reto

Reaching the huts, we headed for one last dip in the river and a last outdoor shower before getting ready to face civilization again. In our heads, we already started planning our next mountain biking adventure!

Thank you to everyone who joined us. We thoroughly enjoyed making memories with you guys!

Here is the awesome video edit Hanco made of the weekend:

on Pinkbike Click here for day one and day two of our Eselfontein adventures.

Eselfontein Getaway: Day 2

It is not often that we manage to break away for a weekend, so when we do get a chance, we like to make the most of it by sleeping late, resting out and relaxing along with mountain biking at our own pace. So that is exactly what went down on the Saturday morning of our recent stay at Eselfontein, Ceres.




Our group all got up on their own time and regrouped for some coffee and breakfast. We were really impressed with Madeleine en Reto's cooking skills as they always had our mouths watering with their gourmet camping food, especially their yummy breakfast. Before we could even think of hitting the trails, there were some repairs to be done, with Hanco destroying his tubeless setup on the Enduro track the previous day.

At about 10:00 we were all kitted up and ready to ride. We started out on the sandy trail behind the huts. We took it slowly and kept a relaxed pace to not tire ourselves too soon. I misjudged a protea branch and had a silly fall on a sandy corner. Luckily it was only a few scratches and bruises, and I was up and on my bike again in a jiffy. Hanco also took a dive in the sand and his Commencal got a few new scratches.

We soldiered on and after a grueling climb, we regrouped at the pipe. This was however only a quick pit stop before we braved the last few climbs. I took the challenge of seeing how far I could get on them before my legs bailed and I surprised myself by riding to the top without getting off and pushing. When we reached the top, we took a well deserved picnic break to enjoy the scenery and catch our breaths. Although we were a mixed group in terms of riding ability, bravery and fitness, we really gelled and the ride was made fun by all the chatting and joking amongst ourselves.

We made our way to the top of the pipe track where we took turns descending. Hanco and Reto went first and stopped at a corner to snap some pics of us coming past. The top part of the pipe track needs some TLC but it was rideable and also enjoyable. The whole pipe track is one of my favorite trails on the farm.

We ended our ride with the two forests. Here is where the bad luck caught up with us as my chain snapped only a few meters into the first poplars. By then I was already somewhat tired (and also maybe a bit moerig) but luckily Hanco came to my rescue and had my chain fixed in a flash. We reached the second forest without incident but right at the end I managed to get a flat tyre... This lead to a series of events including some tears of frustration and exhaustion, me doing a 30 minute walk and a lift from the friendly farmer's wife on the back of a bakkie (with a Great Dane's head on my lap).  Like injured soldiers we arrived back at camp one by one. Strava soon gave us the stats: we did a total of 27.8 kms with 743m elevation.

Photo by Riaan du Preez

After a cold swim, hot showers and food in our bellies we were feeling almost human again and we decided to take things a bit easier the next day!

Read about day 1 at this awesome place here!

Happy Mail: Thanks Dirty Jane!

A few weeks ago Dirty Jane ran a competition on their Facebook page where you had to name the frame to win a t shirt and sticker pack. I entered as soon as I saw the competition and was very surprised to hear that I won!

I received my prize in the mail yesterday and already started wearing my new t shirt!
Thanks to Dirty Jane for hosting this competition!

Eselfontein Getaway: Day 1

We were literally counting down the hours until Friday 12:00 when we would head towards Ceres for our yearly Eselfontein getaway. The car was already packed the previous evening and there were just a few hours of face showing at the office between us and single track heaven!

Hanco picked me up in town and we made our way towards Ceres. After a few Whatsapp's we met up with our friends Reto and Madeleine at a picnic spot on the Bainskloof Pass overlooking the Welvanpas mtb trails. We enjoyed a cup of tea tea and homemade muffins before continuing the rest of the journey together.

En route to Eselfontein, we received an sms from Riaan warning us about the MOERSE speedbumps on the farm road leading to the huts. Not taking him seriously was  a rookie mistake. We were quite surprised at the size of the "speedbumps" and Hanco had to pull out all of his driving skills as we were unfortunately not in a 4x4. We later realised that this was not speedbumps, but rather bumps made to curb the erosion in the area.

When we arrived at the eco huts, we scouted a spot to pitch our tent and started unpacking. After a while the friendly farmer, Deon, came past on his motorbike to come and say hi. We asked him about some new trail options and after trying to give us directions to some fresh exciting trails, he decided to rather fetch his bakkie and shuttle us to the top. Obviously, we accepted his offer and quickly kitted up and got our bikes ready for an unexpected Friday afternoon trail ride.

Hanco and Reto decided to stand on the back of the bakkie while Madeleine, Riaan and I took our seats in the cabin. After the first few kilometers, it was evident that Deon would not make the cut as a WP downhill shuttle driver. Hanco and Reto were holding on for their lives! At one stage Reto was holding onto Hanco's helmet to keep him from being thrown off the back of the bakkie!

After about 8 kms of shuttling, we eventually reached our destination: the entry of one of the moto enduro tracks. Deon's last words were: "it's not really meant for bicycles, but give it a try..." We were all thinking that it couldn't possibly be that bad, we've all been down a few downhill tracks, so what's the worse that could happen? Ahem.... steep, rocky, unexpected uphills, huge rocks in the middle of the trail... and overall not as fun as we imagined, but definitely a challenge!

Taking a bit longer on this descend than anticipated, the sun started setting and we had to get a move on to get back to the huts in time. Luckily we soon spotted some awesome single track (that were meant for bicycles) and all the sweat and swear words of the enduro track were forgotten. With a quick pedal back to the huts, we met up with all the other campers who had arrived while we were out exploring.

With the only hot water in the campsite coming from the 'donkie', Hanco quickly made work of starting a nice big fire and an hour later we were all cleaned up and chatting in front of the fire. We started planning our routes for the next day, and eventually headed to our tents and huts to get a good night's rest in.

Read the rest of our adventures at Eselfontein here!

Sunset FUN ride

Now and again we like to get on our bikes and just ride around the neighbourhood watching the sun set. Today was one of those days. It was too late to kit up and head for the trails, so we grabbed a pack of Jolly Jammer cookies and headed for the closest park.

Luckily there weren't anyone else in sight, so after a while we caught ourselves behaving like big kids!

Up and down on the see saw

Balancing act

Our expressions give away how much fun this was.

Pedal harder!

What a fun way to end the day! Hopefully we'll get a chance for a proper ride tomorrow.

Sunny winter ride.

Late afternoon sun over G-Spot

Yesterday we went for a short ride on one of the most stunning days of winter so far.  The skies were clear after the rain we had the day before and the air was crisp.

We decided to do some laps and improve our time on each lap and comparing it on strava.  After the 3 laps completed we met an old friend of mine, Cherie.  She was on a training ride and joined up with us for a last bit of fun down some of the best single track in the Western Cape.

Cherie Vale showing some style.

Arné always with a smile on her face.

 We stopped after taking some happy snappies and had a nice chat while watching the sun set.  Good friends and great weather, what else can one ask for?

Arné having a chat with Cherie.

From the archives: Lightning lycra

Going through the archives and ended up having a good laugh at this.

Hanco and his idea of a XC ride.

Lycra was very fashionable....or not!

Biking in the Bosch: All about the ladies!

Today kicked off Joanna Dobinson's new venture, Biking in the Bosch. This new project is aimed at getting more girls and women on their bikes and on the trails.

Along with bi-weekly social rides where ladies can meet fellow female mountain bikers to go to races and events with, Joanna is also offering progressive skills clinics where ladies will get the chance to practice technical skills such as drop-offs and switchbacks, to give them more confidence on the single tracks.

The girl behind the idea: Joanna Dobinson

The new Ride In Café on the way to Jonkershoek, was chosen as the kick-off venue for today's Biking in the Bosch Ladies only social ride. After meeting all the new faces, Jo quickly did a run through to make sure everyone's bikes were ride-ready and their tyres pumped. Not long, and we were on our way to Jonkershoek.

At the gate we split into two groups according to our abilities and our moods. One group went up to do a more challenging climb and rewarding single track while the bigger group aimed for the circle route. As I was not feeling very excited by the prospect of starting my ride with a climb, I joined the other ladies and we got going on the jeep track.

There were smile all round

Conversations varied from what wheelsize is the best (yes, even the ladies have opinions on that!) to how patient (or not) our boyfriends or husbands are with us while out biking. We even picked up another solo girl rider along the route and she joined us on our pursuit of singletrack.

Catching our breath at the bridge

As many of the ladies have never set wheels on anything narrower than a jeep track, Joanna challenged them to try the bottom part of the Firehut trail. Of course everyone accepted the challenge and we made our way in that direction. Joanna lead the group down and I decided to wait for everyone to get to the bottom before descending down what is one of my favorite trails in Jonkershoek. My timing however was a bit out and I met up with the group about halfway down the trail. I was so happy to see everyone attempting the switchbacks even though I know that they can be scary at first. At the bottom, we regrouped and recapped on how awesome the trail was. It was so good hearing that everyone had enjoyed it and would soon be wanting more.

Maggie riding single track as if it wasn't her first time!

This singletrack concluded the ladies ride in Jonkershoek and the plan was to ride back to the Ride In café for some coffee and chatting.  At this point, I met up with Hanco and Nick, and I left the ladies group. I joined Hanco and Nick for a quick cycle up to the downhill track and an even quicker ride down. Not wanting to miss out on anything, Hanco and I then also headed for the Ride In café where the rest of the girls were already enjoying breakfast.

Enjoying breakfast and coffee at the Ride In Café

The first thing I noticed when we arrived at the café before our ride, was that they offered ice cream. That got me really excited and I was definitely planning on ending my ride with a few scoops. I chose the banana and macadamia butter and the 70 % chocolate flavors as an accompaniment to my cappuccino. Both the ice cream and coffee was delicious!





We were also very impressed with the new café's service and decor and we will definitely be frequenting it in the future. They also offer a bike wash service, and we all know how handy that can be after a muddy ride in Jonkershoek!

 

All in all, it was a morning well spent. Being a beginner not very long ago, I know how intimidating mountainbiking (and single track) can seem at first. This is why I really support Joanna's goal and venture and am looking forward in joining her on more rides to get more girls on their bikes! The next social ride will be even bigger!

Photo's by Joanna Dobinson, Desiré du Toit and Maggie Brand.