Holla trails

[The Drongo]

One concern with lack of good signage at Giba is people riding the routes the wrong way. Flying around a bend on narrow single track and coming wheel to wheel with someone coming the other way is something I always fear on the busier days....

 

Ride the wrong way! NEVER.

 

Sheesh dude. I sincerely hope it wasn't you who took to the lantana bush the other day on the waterfall trail. My humble apologies. I will try slow down next time.

 

Just remember. Keep left, pass right. (or don't ride so early )

 

Oh. Something to 'fear more' than meeting another cyclist - meeting a HORSE ........eish, now that gets you pumped!

[Hollanic]

my first ride at holla was the blue route 3weeks ago. 5km's in and we were lost. met some other riders and followed them for a bit until we were all lost. Then met some out of towners who were guess what....also lost. Eventually made it back home, by some miracle. Hope the guys at Holla are reading all this and making amends.

 

Ooooh, I was intending to let things be on this forum as I felt we had taken this thing as far as we could.....(aside from us improving the markings )

 

BUT I have to point something out here: our blue route is probably the most well marked of the whole lot and having had the feedback from this forum, I have been quizzing almost every rider who I see to find out our problem areas. NOT ONE person I questioned got lost on blue - in fact, most told me the markings were excellent.

 

Why? It's very simple: Some people miss markers, some people don't. we see it all the time here. I have gone out to to fix arrows in the past where someone got lost only to find the arrow still there. It goes with the territory.

 

But hey. No excuses, I am not saying we can't do better markings on our trails. I'm just saying that often us trail operators get slated for bad markings when the its the rider who has missed a marker. Every marker is a link. If you miss one you can miss the trail. The rule to remember for anyone visiting trails anywhere in the country. Go back to the last known marker and start again.

 

Another tip to improve the experience: If you're visiting a new trail, accept that your first ride will always be an exploration. If you like speed, go back and do the same trail again or try hook in with a local who knows the route.It will always be more fun when you have learnt the trail and can go full tilt.

Use the trail venues facebook site or leave an ad at the front desk asking to join up with other riders and when doing so, try and indicate your level of riding as people are cautious about hooking up with riders of different skills to them.

 

Explore and enjoy.

[Tumbleweed]

Nic, my boet spent some days there trying to get some Epic training in. Was full of praise for the work you've done!

[flyluis]

isnt the whole idea of mountain biking to get lost in the bush? doing a couple extra kms will only do you well.....

[pauloc]

Rode the yellow route again yesterday. Signage is much better, just the one sign at the 18km mark is on a post that is obscured by sugar cane.

 

NicJ - great job on the routes. Yellow is riding really nicely and really appreciate your efforts.

 

Only issue is the coffee shop, or lack thereof. What happened the guys that were selling the chicken / steak rolls? We were keen on a cup / two and a quick bite after our ride but everything was closed.

[geecee]

Oh. Something to 'fear more' than meeting another cyclist - meeting a HORSE ........eish, now that gets you pumped!

 

came round a corner at giba and had 2 horses asses staring at me... i kakked a little. horse was not stoked with us sneaking past, back leg was flaring haha

[Lucky Luke.]

I got dropped in Valley of a thousand hills with a bunch of local riders and we started to make our way back on the Black route. I kind of went off on my own and ran out of signposts fairly soon. Managed to figure out my way back though and enjoyed the 80 odd km meander.

[Caerus]

I'm keen to ride Holla tomorrow, for the first time in a while, any changes I should be aware of? What route suggestion to follow for a 40-50km cruise, which two colour coded routes can I link together to give me the most enjoyable ride?

[King_Crispy]

I'm keen to ride Holla tomorrow, for the first time in a while, any changes I should be aware of? What route suggestion to follow for a 40-50km cruise, which two colour coded routes can I link together to give me the most enjoyable ride?

Anything incorporating green route(Heineken) is good to end on

Edited April 29, 2012 by King_Crispy

[rouxtjie]

So rode Holla over the long weekend...(yellow and red). Just a quick rave to Nic for a fantastic place / venue / trails. The trailhead is a well oiled machine, all the staff are on top of their games. the trails themselves are fantastic....well marked and the part that really stood out for my are their bridges(of which there are alot). They are not rickety...tamatiekas plankie jobbies. They are well built and engineered and inspires confidence when you ride over them. Steep drops on the red(I believe this is a new piece of trail on the red route, but rides extremly well and the tech level is right up there)... are covered in wooden slats and covered in chicken wire and if you come off it because of you talent....not the trail.

 

50 bucks per day get you fantastic value. Keep it up!

 

edit...shot swaerie aka mackie for the epic rides...and beers afterwards.

Edited September 25, 2012 by rouxtjie

[tombeej]

So rode Holla over the long weekend...(yellow and red). Just a quick rave to Nic for a fantastic place / venue / trails. The trailhead is a well oiled machine, all the staff are on top of their games. the trails themselves are fantastic....well marked and the part that really stood out for my are their bridges(of which there are alot). They are not rickety...tamatiekas plankie jobbies. They are well built and engineered and inspires confidence when you ride over them. Steep drops on the red(I believe this is a new piece of trail on the red route, but rides extremly well and the tech level is right up there)... are covered in wooden slats and covered in chicken wire and if you come off it because of you talent....not the trail.

 

50 bucks per day get you fantastic value. Keep it up!

 

edit...shot swaerie aka mackie for the epic rides...and beers afterwards.

 

Those little wooden bridges tend to get washed away after each mini flood - which happens quite often, esp. at this time of year. And generally by the next day the folks at Holla have been out there retrieving the bridges, rebuilding, fixing washed out sections, etc. The amount of selfless work the guys do for us is not often seen - or appreciated.

 

We rode there again this weekend and after all the rains I was really amazed to see the little wooden bridges up and working. The new singletrack on yellow was quite impressive, excellent work to Nic and the team.

 

And the bike wash for me is the best R50 bucks spent, every time.

[rouxtjie]

Those little wooden bridges tend to get washed away after each mini flood - which happens quite often, esp. at this time of year. And generally by the next day the folks at Holla have been out there retrieving the bridges, rebuilding, fixing washed out sections, etc. The amount of selfless work the guys do for us is not often seen - or appreciated.

 

We rode there again this weekend and after all the rains I was really amazed to see the little wooden bridges up and working. The new singletrack on yellow was quite impressive, excellent work to Nic and the team.

 

And the bike wash for me is the best R50 bucks spent, every time.

Ja look the bridges at VG also gets washed away with big rains, but the quality of the bridges is what sets holla apart. Strips that have gone miff and vrot, gets replaced and they generally feel more solid. The yellow is very scenic and a good ride out, but the red's singletrack is the bomb. The section we did is apparently new, there is a split in singletrack(you can take a chicken or bull run, chicken left, bull right) and the down's are hairy but good fun, well on my rigid ss at least. We left from mackie's complex(near the BP...and rode to holla every morning....no bike racks to worry about)

 

You guys are spoilt down there.

[rouxtjie]

Bastard little climb leading up to this view...but worth it