marko35s

Please do not ask them to change the website, once done it will be another year before they change it to show open again. As far as 'closed' signs we have asked them to put up signage, even just temporary stuff, so let's see if they do get around to it. In the meantime Tokaimtb have started placing hazard tape on trail entry and exit points. The trails that have been worked on are now festooned in what has been described as a "Petulant" amount of tape. Believe me it is unmissable. One thing to note - There are large parts of the horse riding area and levels 4 & 5 towards the Elephants Eye Trail that SANParks consider unstable and could be quite dangerous when the rain arrives over the weekend.

It all went but it went quickly, which from our point of view was quite handy because it meant the fire moved through the area quickly and lessened the damage it did to the trails.

Quick update time - After a quick inspection and trail walk on Wednesday we can confirm that the fire did a fair amount of damage but nothing like the 2015 fire. The good news, the following trails were unaffected - Fairy Garden (got lucky there as the fire reached within 5m of the trail), My Roots, Your Roots, DH4, Boomslang, Snake Eyes, Rinkhals, Puff Adder & The Bridal Path. We got really lucky as this means none of the wooden trail structures were affected. The bad news, the following trails were affected by the fire - Donkey, Broken Road, DH0, DH1, DH2, Boulders (this was hit very hard), AM Trail, Lizard, Cobra. All these were fully burned. In addition the following were partially burned - Vasbyt (25%), DH3 (25%) and Mamba (30%). Luckily after the 2015 fire we spent a lot of time replacing wooden trail features with rock wherever possible so that minimised some of the damage. What is still an issue are the many tree stumps and roots on and around the trail that at the time of inspection were still burning, we are hopeful that the rain yesterday will have helped with that. Currently the trails remain closed by order of SANparks, we will be talking to them to work towards opening up again as soon as possible.

Tokai will be open.

Just how bloody difficult can it be to check nothing is approaching before you open a door, it's literally half a second or less for crying out loud.

Should be fine all the way up to The Bridal Path (not had any issues at that level), it's a bit further up where the issues have been.

Er, what? There could be many reasons, certainly more valid ones than you have to drop a comment like that.

You will be okay on the trails, just don't go up to the mast on your own as all the muggings have effectively happened on a 100m stretch of the road that offers multiple escape routes. There are efforts being made to make it more secure but nothing new has been put in place yet.

Try calling Chris at Bikepark Uitsig, as far as I know he is still collecting groups of people for joint permits.

Now, almost unbelievably, available online - https://www.sanparks.org/tickets/permits/ Seems like a simple enough process (register, submit details, pay and download) with no need for photos and you can still do the discounted four person deal. I think the official announcement is due to go out in the next few days but the website is working now.

That would be me, I just roll up to the exit and wait to be let out. It may be because I am in and out quickly most of the time that I seem to get away with it. I think the paid/gated parking became a thing there because people were just parking there and not using any of the facilities and a couple of years back the restaurant there was held up when the staff arrived one morning.

Pretty sure the 'they' there is not the bikepark, I would be very surprised if any of the parking charge went to them.

Just to add to the anxiety you can add two Puff Adders spotted on Snake Eyes a few days back, one on the big right hand corner and the other handily placed at exactly where you land if you do the rock drop near the exit. Lot's of others spotted mostly on the trails above level three.

Not a route but the Bikepark at Uitsig would be fun for him.

I'm not sure why you are quoting me here. Go back to my earlier posts where I specifically state the problem comes from above the heads of the local staff, who as I said for the most part do their best in trying circumstances.

Specific to the highlighted part of your post - in discussions with park management it appears that they try to bring in external contractors or put in place an outside company for any role that they do not see as part of their core skill set. The argument being that they want to concentrate on their core tasks and not spend time and money learning how to run a restaurant for instance. As far as I am aware the company with the concession pays a rental to parks rather than parks paying them. Whether this is a good thing or not is open to debate.

TMNP has more than enough self generated revenue to fund itself properly, the fact that the revenue does not get sufficiently reinvested into the park is what leads to the poor condition of much of the infrastructure. Using that revenue elsewhere pretty much points to it being a cash cow. That said maybe they are starting to realise it is a problem - https://www.news24.com/news24/community-newspaper/peoples-post/r36-million-set-aside-to-address-decay-in-table-mountain-national-park-20230620

It's not just mountain bikers feeling ignored or pushed out, there are quite a few user groups up in arms pretty much all the time. Someone a while back called TMNP a cash cow and they have a reasonable point when Cape Point alone brings in hundreds of millions each year but user groups (be they MTB, horse riders, hikers or whatever) as often as not end up with the responsibility of maintaining or making safe large chunks of the facility. We are talking about a group who try not to drive at the end of the month because their fuel budget is too small (and yes I have personal experience of that). What we do tend to miss is that as often as not the local management are generally decent people who do their best to do a good job in circumstances beyond their control thanks to decisions made way above them in Pretoria. They do, however, have quite the ability to frustrate when you try and engage with them. For example when chasing them about the activity card revenue being used for trail upgrades I was told that it was essential to their operation but in a separate conversation when I pointed out that MTB earned them a lot through activity card sales I was told it is an insignificant portion of their budget... You can't win.

Basically exactly what it sounds like, stripping bark from an otherwise healthy tree mainly for use in traditional remedies. It often means the targeted tree dies and is quite a big issue in Cape Town.

Different sections? Oh good grief... Same section, different department which as far as I can tell means they are under some sort of legal obligation not to talk to each other. Or they can't be arsed. I know where I would place my bet.

Go through the Tokaimtb accounts here - https://tokaimtb.com/tokaimtb-admin/ You will not find a cent from parks. Every bit of work on those trails (and in some cases jeep tracks too) is paid for by memberships, donations and trail sponsors.

You spelt bold wrong. If I was to write what appears to be your thought process I would end up with a massive ban here.

This. No excuses for hurting someone but also failing to comply with a lawful instruction is just asking for trouble.

No he wasn't, SANParks looked into the whole saga and the outcome was he was reinstated. I don't know how they reached that decision but can only guess that they must have been pretty confident in their position to do so.