Hellwarp

We working on it, something in the pipeline for the near future.

If you're an annual permit holder you can ride from sunrise to sunset so a late afternoon ride is no problem. Middelvlei is very close to Stellenbosch. Day permit holders are restricted a bit by the opening/closing times of the starting point permit sales. But if you bought a day permit in advance then you can also start early morning or late afternoon, just write the date you wish to ride on the permit and armband.

Coming from Brackenfell side its about 8.5km from the Kuilsriver Golf Course entrance. From Paarl side its 1km from the Devon Valley Golf Course entrance.

Howzit Popeye I'll arrange to have annual permits available there on Saturday morning. Just bring the exact cash amount as there wont be a cash register for change or credit cards until after 8am. Its also not an "official" annual permit sales point. But seeing as its a once-off we'll work something out. Alternatively buy one from one of the annual permit sales points http://bottelaryhillsmtb.co.za/?page_id=689 before Saturday.

For now night rides are not on the cards. Allow us to just get everything up and running an iron out any issues. I'm sure we will look into organised group night rides but we cant do it all until everything works. Bear in mind that we not dealing with one farm like a Hillcrest or a Meerendal. Here we dealing with over 20 farms. So it makes things a little more complicated.

Annual Permits are R270

Homer !! Homer wait !! The permits are only available for sale as of tomorrow. I'm delivering to all the selling points today.

At this stage there is about 1.5 km of single track. We will be looking at more single track options in the near future. We first want to get the routes running properly and see where our problem areas are. After we've had rain we will look at possibilities for future singletrack. Parts of the routes may change so we don't want to spend money now that may be a waste later.

okay most of gremlins should be sorted, thanks for the heads up.

Hi everyone Thanks for participating in this thread. Please follow this link for more info https://community.bikehub.co.za/topic/102147-bottelary-hills-mtb-trails/ Cheers

Hi everyone, its been a long haul but here we are. The Bottelary Hills MTB Trails will be opening this coming Saturday 9th April. Please note that permits (Annual and Day) will only be available for sale from this Thursday 7th April at the various selling points. For more detail visit our website http://bottelaryconservancy.co.za/ Please post any questions you may have on this thread. Thanks

Ja, still lots do do and you haven't even offered to help yet ....

10 days to go before we open the trails ....... !

To create a mountain bike trail across privately owned land is not as straight forward as it seems. We dont have the funds to create another whistler and that was never our intention. If there's enough existing place to ride around Stellies then why do so many riders "stray" onto private land? We think the sport is growing phenominally and that there can never be enough space to ride. We want to create an alternative and hope that the topography and scenic beauty of the area offers riders something different. If it doesn't work out the way we expected then well, we tried.

The opening date has been moved on to the 9th of April, one week later than we planned. The Epic finishes this week-end and we still got one or two things to iron out so it actually works out better for the 9th.

Actually we were thinking more along the lines of a dam crossing ..... route stops one side and continues on the other (with no way round). So you have to swim your bike across.

Howzit Tankman For now the whereabouts are anyones guess until things are finalised. Because we dealing with 20 different landowners and various other factors we cant divulge too much info. Believe me a lot of people are are really exited at the prospect and we hope it lives up to expectations. Our goal is to open the route on April fools day ...

We will have a bike board system, not only for self policing by member riders but also for easy identification by farm owners and managers.

The rules are going to be really simple, you pay an annual membership or buy a day pass. You stick to the marked trails and enjoy the ride. IMBA rules apply as usual. Mind you with the amount of climbing there is, maybe "enjoying the ride" could be a challenge. The landowners (Boere) trust that the MTB riders will abide by the rules, otherwise it won't be a win-win situation. Nearly there

Howzit everyone. Some of you may be wine drinkers and be interested to know that the 2011 grape harvest is nearing its end. Most of the grapes will have been harvested by end of next week. So no more getting stuck in traffic behind tractors ! So far things have progressed well and as dirtman mentioned we looking to open the new trails within the next month. By then we should have a website up with all the necessary info. We'll be on Facebook as well. We have a few starting/entry points in mind, none of which have been finalised yet. A crucial part of the trails being a success is that riders stay on the trails and don't stray off them. One needs to bear in mind that this is not State owned land, its not like Jonkershoek for example where you can basically free-ride wherever theres a road or track. The entire route is across privately owned land so all roads/tracks that are not part of the route are no go. One of the reasons why landowners bought into the idea of MTB trails was to get it more structured and organised. The trails have been laid out by guys who have many years of trail building and riding experience. So we hope the layout will appeal to all riders.

Howzit everybody. Hope 2011 is a great year for all of us, think we all can do with one. Just to bump this topic back up and bring you guys up to speed with whats happening. We still busy with meetings and leg-work but aim to start with lay out and route building by beginning of Feb. The initial go-ahead has been given although we still need some confirmation and input from Landowners. Hope to have that settled by end next week before they get stuck into harvest. As far as access goes we aiming for three to four entry points to make it easier to get to the route. Annual and day permit options is what we looking at presently. If we need a few volunteers we'll definately be in contact. Hopefully by the time we open the route it won't be just another "April fools" joke.