Dullstroom MTB Routes

[Pall Catt]

So last weekend was a nice cold and wettish weekend in Dullstroom. I did the first route as per Paul Catt's post earlier in this forum and went up to Riverman Cabin. On the way back I missed the O'Grady's loop exit. I entered the loop where his entered back onto the main road and just did an in and out down to O'Grady's.

 

This route is proper training (for me that is) and should definitely not be attempted if you're unfit. The last 13km is all climbing and had me swearing and crying and praying, but hey, no pain no gain they said!!!

 

That first 15km or so has quite a lot of corrugation, but still very passable. The rain of the previous night made it just that little more fun with a couple of mud pools on the route. There wasn't a lot of traffic and I felt completely save all the way out and back (done it solo).

 

I stopped at Riverman Cabin for a coffee and on the way back stopped at High Side Tavern in Tonteldoos for ONE beer and Baked Beans on toast.

 

I'm already planning my next trip to Dullstroom, want to do some of the other routes as well. It is truly a great area for mountainbiking!!! Thanks Paul for your route suggestions, maybe if you could add a difficulty grade to each, will help future riders to choose the routes for their fitness level/abilities.

 

Nice one Cabous!

 

Ya, mountain biking at those altitudes is not easy. Pretty much any ride in Dullies is gona have its fair share of climbing too. How awesome is Tonteldoos though? I love that place!

 

I'll do my best to add a difficulty grade to those routes, but I think it would be cool if we got fellow hubbers to also grade them as they try them out, to get a community based grading rather than one individual's opinion. What would you have graded this route that you did?

 

Also, for future hubbers that want to try this route and might have difficulty in finding the turnoff for the O'Grady's loop, if you're heading back towards Dullstroom, its a little road to the left not long after the High Side Tavern and Cheese shop, and just before the Thirsty Walrus bottle store and general dealer. I think there is a sign pointing down that road for "The Barn".

[Pall Catt]

If you're keen to head out and tackle a pretty big climb, the fabled Korfnek climb which features prominently as the highlight of the Cullinan2Tonteldoos Ultra with its steepest part being 1.8km at 8% gradient, is also quite easily accessible from Dullstroom. From the Dullstroom side though, its a downhill, so you can either head out that way and go down it, turn around and go back up and head back to Dullstroom which would be about 20km each way:

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/1985038025

 

Or there is a long 80km loop you can do where you go up to Tonteldoos, and then turn off just a few hundred metres before the town (or carry on into town for some supplies first), onto the road towards Stofberg, and then loops back via Laersdrif to eventually lead you to the foot of the Korfnek climb (strava segment affectionately titled "Where the f#@k is Tonteldoos") from where you can then head back to Dullstroom. This is mostly on gravel road with about 6km of tar heading into Laersdrif.

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/1985047835

[Pall Catt]

If you want a super chilled but still very pleasant ride, you can go out along the railway line that runs past the dam, and come back on it.

 

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/1988598224

 

Another option if you want to ride more single track is to go and ride the Dunkeld trails. They have about 36km of trails on their property.

http://www.dunkeldestate.co.za/activities-and-facilities/hiking-and-mountain-biking-in-dullstroom/

[Cabous9]

 

I'll do my best to add a difficulty grade to those routes, but I think it would be cool if we got fellow hubbers to also grade them as they try them out, to get a community based grading rather than one individual's opinion. What would you have graded this route that you did?

 

When thinking about it, it's going to be a bit difficult to grade. For me it was about a 7.5/10 difficult rate, for the next guy it may be a 5. I can just comment that from my perspective you can't be unfit if you want to tackle the Riverman Cabin route.

 

Thanks Pall for the latest route posts. I'm definitely heading back to Dullies in the near future, and then making a long weekend of it, a normal 2 night weekend is way to short for all the fun to be had around there on your MTB.

[Brettowski]

off to Tonteldoos tomorrow morning.... can't wait.

[Brettowski]

I can honestly say that was a very enjoyable ride, both my wife and I enjoyed it very much. One oversight on our part, we rode on Easter Friday, so the Thirsty Walrus and High Side were closed for the public holiday. We did however find "the cat and the cow" just around the corder, and they gladly made us a strong coffee.

The ride back had some tough clips, but wasn't anything too hectic. All in all, a brilliant few hours out on the bike. Thanks To Paul!

[RallyRob]

Hi guys.......staying at Walkersons next weekend and was wondering what route you’d recommend for MTB?? Ideally want to ride from the resort without having to load up the bike. Thanks

[Pall Catt]

Hi guys.......staying at Walkersons next weekend and was wondering what route you’d recommend for MTB?? Ideally want to ride from the resort without having to load up the bike. Thanks

How far do you want to go?

[RallyRob]

Looking 40 to 50km ride......probably something in the region of 3 hours.

Any thoughts??

[Pall Catt]

edit: duplicate post

Edited April 13, 2018 by Pall Catt

[Pall Catt]

Looking 40 to 50km ride......probably something in the region of 3 hours.

Any thoughts??

 

Sure,

 

Before I get into the route options, I should mention (although you may already know this) that Walkersons is 10km outside Dullstroom on the tar road between Dullstroom and Lydenburg. In my opinion its not a great road for cycling because there isn't much of a shoulder and there are quite a few trucks, but with that said, I still often see cyclists there and havent heard of anyone being knocked over. There are sections where you can ride on strips of gravel next to the road. But my point being that staying in Walkersons, you will have to do parts of this road for any route that you are going to do.

 

So here are 3 variants of a similar route:

Version 1:

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/2011024018

Version 2:

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/2011025263

Version 3:

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/2011026160

 

These all start by turning right out of Walkersons (towards Lydenburg) and then turning off almost immediately (after just over 1km) onto the gravel road that runs along the railway as it curves down the contours of the mountain. From here you will be looking over Walkersons. At about 11.5km you turn right onto another gravel road. Note that pretty much all of this has been downhill and so you're setting yourself up for a big climb (on all 3 of the routes you will top out at about 2,100m altitude at some point).

 

At approximately kilometre 19 version 1 and 2 turn right while version 3 carries on straight. Version 3 continues on to Highland Gate Golf Estate where the gravel road becomes tar, and then you climb back up on the tar road (very nice, quiet tar road) and pop out on the other side of Dullstroom (1.5km on the Belfast side of town), come back through Dullstroom and then turn off to take the railway service road (gravel) to get you closer to Walkersons before you then have to use the tar road for the last 5km to get back to Walkersons. This version is the longest of the 3 but it lets you do most of the climbing on the tar road which makes it a bit easier.

 

Version 1 and 2, turn off at approximately kilometre 19 as mentioned, and then take you up a gnarly gravel road climb. Its long and tough and steep in parts. A real test. It pops you out on the tar road between Dullstroom and Walkersons. From here you can take version 1 which goes straight back along the tar road for approximately 8km to Walkersons. Version 2, alternatively, takes you 2 kilometres into Dullstroom, and then loops back around on the railway service road (gravel), and drops you further up the tar road, only about 5km from Walkersons.

 

For a completely different route, you can do this one:

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/1972814057

 

This will take you 5km towards Dullstroom on the tar road, turn right and go up into and through the Verloren Valei Nature Reserve as far as you can go until you get to another tar road, at this point turn around and head home the same way you came. This route takes you to a maximum elevation of over 2,200m. Its mostly uphill all the way there and downhill all the way back but its quite beautiful.

 

Then, if you're staying at Walkersons, once you're back, load the family up in the Helicopter and head into town for a coffee or a pancake ;-)

 

Hope its fun!

[RallyRob]

Thanks for all the help.....really great to come across someone prepared to share his passion for the sport but helping people enjoy their riding in a new location.

[RallyRob]

Hi Pall....rode the first of your proposed options today and had a great ride. With the extra bit from the Walkersons reception it ended up being a solid 45km loop.

 

After yesterday’s heavy rain there was a fair amount of mud and standing water, but everything was still rideable even though the bike needed a PROPER clean afterwards.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the route you put together and the bit along the railway line included a few technical surprises so one had to stay away. The not so pleasant surprise was that th first 20km was pretty much flat or downhill (

[RallyRob]

Seems part of my post got cut off......

 

Hi Pall....rode the first of your proposed options today and had a great ride. With the extra bit from the Walkersons reception it ended up being a solid 45km loop.

 

After yesterday’s heavy rain there was a fair amount of mud and standing water, but everything was still rideable even though the bike needed a PROPER clean afterwards.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the route you put together and the bit along the railway line included a few technical surprises so one had to stay away. The not so pleasant surprise was that th first 20km was pretty much flat or downhill (<100m ascent) whilst most of the 2nd half was very uphill with some long sections hitch punished the legs You did warn about the 2nd half being uphill, but the length of the climb and steepness still came as a shock.

 

If anyone is coming to Dullstroom I can strongly recommend Pall”s routes and can definitely say that Dullstroom is underrated as a mountain bike venue.

 

Thanks for all the effort Pall, as finding my way around without your assistance would definitely have been a challenge and I would not have experienced such a great riding experience.

[Pall Catt]

Seems part of my post got cut off......

 

Hi Pall....rode the first of your proposed options today and had a great ride. With the extra bit from the Walkersons reception it ended up being a solid 45km loop.

 

After yesterday’s heavy rain there was a fair amount of mud and standing water, but everything was still rideable even though the bike needed a PROPER clean afterwards.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the route you put together and the bit along the railway line included a few technical surprises so one had to stay away. The not so pleasant surprise was that th first 20km was pretty much flat or downhill (<100m ascent) whilst most of the 2nd half was very uphill with some long sections hitch punished the legs You did warn about the 2nd half being uphill, but the length of the climb and steepness still came as a shock.

 

If anyone is coming to Dullstroom I can strongly recommend Pall”s routes and can definitely say that Dullstroom is underrated as a mountain bike venue.

 

Thanks for all the effort Pall, as finding my way around without your assistance would definitely have been a challenge and I would not have experienced such a great riding experience.

 

Lekker, Rob. Nice pics.

 

Glad you had a good time. That climb is a really tough one so dont feel bad, but luckily there's beautiful scenery to take some of the pain off. For future rides, if you wanted to soften up the climb a bit, you could do version 3 of the routes I suggested and do the climbing on the tar road from Highland Gate Golf Estate. I know mountain bikers like to avoid tar roads but this one is a really nice tar road, also with great views.

[Rowl]

Sorry I'm a bit late to the party here but for future reference, there is plenty of MTBing to be done in Dullstroom. Some suggested routes on public roads are as follows (all starting and ending at the Seattle Coffee Shop on the main road:

 

You can ride out to Tonteldoos and back all on scenic gravel roads. Tonteldoos makes an awesome halfway stop for a coffee or breakfast. You can either stop in the town itself (about 22km each way from Dullstroom) or you can continue on up the road to the Riverman Cabin which has a restaurant too (about 29km each way from Dullstroom). In this route I've also added a detour loop you can take on the way back for some added scenery and to check out a quaint old little church but you could obviously just head straight back along the main road if you prefer.

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/1972829204

 

This one is a 40km ride down to the Highland Gate Golf course on a really nice quiet smooth tar road but then after the golf course it becomes a gravel road. It meanders along the highlands for a while quite close to the escarpment edge and then takes you up a monster gravel road climb back towards Dullstroom to pop you out for the last 3km on the tar road between Lydenburg and Dullstroom.

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/1972806251

 

This is slightly longer variant of the above. Instead of turning straight off on the golf course road, you go further towards Belfast (extra 6.5km on that Belfast road which is not great if you're uncomfortable with high speed traffic) but then turnoff onto a gravel road which loops back around and joins up with the golf course tar road about halfway down and then follows the remainder of the route as described above.

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/1972811150

 

This is a 47 km loop which heads out on the railway gravel road (which is nicer than that sounds) up to De Berg road. From there you follow the tar road for about 6km towards Lydenburg (there is a way to avoid the tar road but I'm not entirely its all public roads - I've never had to jump any gates or anything going that way but it kindof has that private land feel) and then turnoff at Santa to follow the railway gravel road all the way down as it winds along the contours above Walkersons. Then a right turn meanders you along the highlands again with the escarpment on your left and and then you turn right up the same monster climb as the above routes and finish the same.

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/1972814057

(Here is the link for the alternative route avoiding the 6km on the Lydenburg road which as I said, feels like it might use some private land, so be warned - http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/1972820423)

 

You can also sort of combine the above routes for a bit more distance:

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/1972827251

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/1972826846 (this one uses that section that feels like it could be private land)

 

This 72km route in my opinion is the best one to do if you are up for a challenge. It takes you out on the railway road and turns into and through Verloren Valei Nature reserve (gravel road) and peaks at about 2300m above sea level, before dropping you down a tar road pass (with a nice wide shoulder) and then turns off on more gravel to Tonteldoos and heads back to Dullstroom. Its a tough 72km.

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/1972823372

 

There are more options of other routes but these should keep you busy for now. Any of these routes could also otherwise be done in reverse. You should be able to export any of these routes from Mapmyride to GPX or you can download the mapmyride app and then I think you can follow them on your phone.

Hey Pall Catt,

 

Did the Dullstroom to Tonteldoos route today, about 45km and 750m of climbing. Had a lekker brekkie in Tonteldoos at the Cat and the Cow.

 

The route was very enjoyable ableit with some corrugated sections making me wish for a dual suspension. Overall a good bumpy ride.