Upington Northern Cape mtb trails?

[lizzy.olwen]

Hey

 

I'm going to upington these holidays and was hoping I could take my bike with and ride while I am there.

Does anyone know anything about the trails there & what they are like?

 

[Mackie]

Upington for a holiday? and you live in Stellenbosch? I reckon you will cross all of Upington heading to the Cape on your way up.

[Memnon]

Bump.

 

We are heading through on our way to do some rafting and in light of the "cycle the nine provinces" thread it would be nice to be able to tick the NC off the list. Any suggestions? Augrabies maybe?

[Shebeen]

Bump.

 

We are heading through on our way to do some rafting and in light of the "cycle the nine provinces" thread it would be nice to be able to tick the NC off the list. Any suggestions? Augrabies maybe?

I do quite a bit of work up there, but never taken a bike.

There is a bike shop in town, probably your best starting point

[Memnon]

Thanks. I'll give them a shout.

[SeaBee]

Many many many years ago... I grew up in Upington. Returned there about 5 years ago for a quick visit.

 

There's not much mountains to mountainbike on... Even the veldjie close to our old house is now a hospital, jeez, we used to ride and ramp and go bossies there...

 

Agree - ask the LBS, that'll be a good start.

 

Only other place that might be nice to ride (but you can ride there with your car as well, last I was there) is "Maanrots" (Moon rock) just before Augrabies. Don't know what the rules and regs are there regarding access nowadays. We saw lots of game, so a bike ride there would be an experience (again, given that I am describing 5 years+ ago's experience - the place may have changed completely by now). But please inquire first.

[Shebeen]

hmmm, looks like i've just won first prize of a trip there next week with the provincial guvvernment. i need to be there for 48 hours to see them for a four hour meeting - they booked it slap on the only flight from cape town, so fly in day early, fly back next day.

 

i know enough to know it's not bike weather there now. maybe i can go paddling instead.

[Memnon]

@SeaBee - when did you live in Upington? I lived there in 1982 - 89 as a kid. It was a great place to get BMX punctures; I wish we had had tubeless back then...

[SeaBee]

We must've just missed each other then. We moved down to CT at the end of... was it 81 or 82?

 

Was so funny, a couple of years later I was looking around in the stands when we had the Craven week down here (87), spotted a buddy of mine from primary school whom I obviously haven't seen since we moved... and we just hit it off like the old times. Walked across and met most of the old gang - justabout everybody playing for NC!

 

It was just a great place to grow up in! But heck, it's changed a lot... biiiiig place now!

[porqui]

I would check out the average temperatures for this time of year - yes even the night time temps.

 

Will bite you if you're not used to riding in high 30's

[SeaBee]

...or high 40's!

 

It's hot, but it's dry heat. I prefer that! And in those days, you could sleep outside - we did that many evenings!

 

You guys are putting me in a reminiscence mood here!

[Super Sywurm]

@SeaBee - when did you live in Upington? I lived there in 1982 - 89 as a kid. It was a great place to get BMX punctures; I wish we had had tubeless back then...

 

Did you have the good old perma tubes???