Table Mountain permit system

[porqui]

And Eddy just to make one feel better about the day pass or the activity card - not a cent of it goes toward trail maintenance or safety. All of it goes to Pretoria where it gets redistributed.

[Eddy Gordo]

And Eddy just to make one feel better about the day pass or the activity card - not a cent of it goes toward trail maintenance or safety. All of it goes to Pretoria where it gets redistributed.

Sanparks website begs to differ!! So somewhere along the line some one is lying!

[Eddy Gordo]

https://www.sanparks.org/parks/table_mountain/tourism/access-cards-permits.php

 

 

[marko35s]

https://www.sanparks.org/parks/table_mountain/tourism/access-cards-permits.php

 

mtb.jpg

I personally asked them to remove that type of line in a meeting last year.

My reasoning was that it gives a completely false impression of the funding as we see it. Looking at that it has been amended but still leaves lots of room for misunderstanding.

I dug out the minutes of the meeting dated 26 March 2019

Here's the relevant bit - 

 

Matters Arising

MS: The wording on the FAQ page for activity cards on the SANParks website is leading visitors to believe that TokaiMTB and the trails are funded via money garnered from activity card sales, specifically mentioned on the site are track maintenance and closing of illegal trails. TokaiMTB requests that any confusing or unclear wording be removed or changed as this is having an adverse effect on our ability to raise outside funding. 

Edited December 30, 2019 by marko35s

[(Deon)]

Sanparks website begs to differ!! So somewhere along the line some one is lying!

There would have been no reason to request a donation from so many generous people, or the need to set up an advocacy membership –again supported by many more generous people acting in the best interest of Tokai– had a percentage of activity card earnings made it's way back to our trails, or any other mtb trail in the Park for that matter.

[porqui]

Sanparks website begs to differ!! So somewhere along the line some one is lying!

 

I know it for a fact - so you figure.

 

 

Also - at more than R500 per card and how many cards (plenty) the amount per year is huge.

Edited December 30, 2019 by porqui

[eddy]

The answer I got from them was that that money is used to offset the damage done by said cyclists, climbers and dog walkers. I call bull**** on that one.

 

 

 

If they are going to bull****, at least they should use an argument that holds even a smidgeon of water vapour.

 

How does my bicycle cause damage to the tar road from the Cape Point gate to the restaurant but my car does not ?

 

Hopefully this incident forces the issue between Cape Tourism and Sanparks and we get a logical, pro-tourism solution.

 

ps. I have no issue with paying to enter the park. I do so annually via my greencard.

[DieselnDust]

Sanparks website begs to differ!! So somewhere along the line some one is lying!

 

 

That wouldn't be the first time. Not one cent comes back to trail maintenance. Its income and that is re-distributed amongst the Parks according to the established budget allocation for the next financial year

[lloydkayak]

Thanks for the useful thread.

Does anyone know if a Level 3 permit includes activities under Level 2? Or do you need to buy one of each?

[Thermophage]

Thanks for the useful thread.

 

Does anyone know if a Level 3 permit includes activities under Level 2? Or do you need to buy one of each?

Yep, any level permit you buy counts as having any other lower level permit.

[Yo-Yo]

It is a bit of a mess for sure but I've never really had too much difficulty understanding the system. The way I look at it is that the permits and wild cards gain me access to the National Park. I pay / donate to TokaiMTB for the MTB specific trails which are granted to be built on TMNP land. You can happily ride in the various parts of TM on roads that aren't built by the hard working people in TokaiMTB and the rest (mass respect goes out to them and the bureaucratic nightmare that must be even before a shovel breaks the ground). 

 

Of course the roads you can ride are very normal jeep track but that is what it is. We're a specific sporting niche along with all the other users on the mountain. TMNP Authorities are more about protection and rehabilitation as far as I can see. Of course things like riding the tar road from Cape Point needing a permit is just a bit crazy but then there are a lot of tour companies sending people off and bikes and using that road to make money. If I crayfish there I need a certain permit, if I crayfish off a canoe I need an additional one. Go figure. 

 

Honestly it's not an expensive yearly cost for what you get. 1 x permit, 1 x membership to TokaiMTB and a couple of donations. It's still cheaper than Tygerberg from what I remember and a lot better trails, it's cheaper than that tyre you wanted to try out, those new shorts that match your frame and cost per ride is pretty good. 

 

What annoys me is actually the people on here who soapbox their annoyance and then ride trails in that same National Park that aren't allowed on a regular basis, the same guys who are illegally cutting and riding new trails up around Blockhouse, Rhodes Memorial and others but that's okay because that's being core.

 

It's not a given right that we have this access and to be honest those riders are part of the problem and hamper all the good work being done by a very small few for the benefit of a huge amount of others. 

 

It's not perfect at all but there are a lot of different priorities and stakeholders in the picture so I'm pretty grateful for what we have and thankful to all who have got us here. 

[Thermophage]

Ever think about why ppl feel the need to build trails in places like that? May it be that they feel the general trails built by our official means are inadequate, monotonous and uninteresting?

I mean take Status Quo at jonkers for example...amazing trail. Was not built legally initially...we all know it, we all love riding it (even though it makes me poo myself).

I mean i am not saying it's OK to do it illegally, but that if ppl feel they are not getting what they ask for they are going to find a way to get it.

The TMNP Activity Permit is another story...if we could see some of those funds going back into the trails I think people would be far happier to pay the price. It is not expensive, as you say.

As for Tokai MTB...well yes, also not expensive. So worthwhile as well.

But as long as MTB has been around ppl have been building trail, ad they will continue to for as long as it is around. That's how you get the real progression in the sport IMO. P.S. I has (as yet) not built illegal trail, unless you count fixing some stuff up in Majik forest that had been neglected for ages

[Meezo]

Ever think about why ppl feel the need to build trails in places like that? May it be that they feel the general trails built by our official means are inadequate, monotonous and uninteresting?

I mean take Status Quo at jonkers for example...amazing trail. Was not built legally initially...we all know it, we all love riding it (even though it makes me poo myself).

I mean i am not saying it's OK to do it illegally, but that if ppl feel they are not getting what they ask for they are going to find a way to get it.

The TMNP Activity Permit is another story...if we could see some of those funds going back into the trails I think people would be far happier to pay the price. It is not expensive, as you say.

As for Tokai MTB...well yes, also not expensive. So worthwhile as well.

But as long as MTB has been around ppl have been building trail, ad they will continue to for as long as it is around. That's how you get the real progression in the sport IMO. P.S. I has (as yet) not built illegal trail, unless you count fixing some stuff up in Majik forest that had been neglected for ages

The Glen

The Single Track

Pat's Track

Tecky Rock

 

All examples on table mountain where it was "built" illegally, but now legal

Edited January 7, 2020 by Meezo

[Thermophage]

Exactly. It is something that has been happening for decades and will continue. I guess in the 90's we had no "established" trail centres, so perhaps it was a total necessity then. However, now we do, and they are clearly not catering for many types of riding that people want/need

I mean some slow tech, off camber, fewer berms, etc, etc. Nobody want's or needs a WC level DH track (although in actuality we kind of do as we don't have one at all), but just something ... different I guess to the monotony. 

More like Switchbacks at Tokai as a basic example. Anyway, I don't see it happening anytime soon unfortunately.

 

The Glen
The Single Track
Pat's Track
Tecky Rock

All examples on table mountain where it was "built" illegally, but now legal

[Meezo]

For the context of the thread, i think we may be drifting.

 

The logic of the permit system is in question, as well as the consistency of the permit system across the users. Then the usage of the said permit fees.

[Jewbacca]

Isn't the main aim of Parks and TMNP conservation?

 

Not activities?

 

Some of those trails built illegally might go through fauna and flora that doesn't grow in too many other places, or start erosion that wipes out parts of the mountain that were thriving because there was no traffic there?

 

Look, I understand that the gnar is addictive, but building trails in pine trees in an MTO farm is not the same as disturbing pockets of endangered indigenous plant and forest areas.

 

For a long time I rode the contour path and the stairs above the blockhouse, Queens Blockhouse The Other Woman and all it's other guises etc, but I can't really justify knowingly breaking the rules in search of the gnar anymore.

 

I was annoyed when the Queens Blockhouse was 'closed'.... 

 

These days, in the current maelstrom of Parks/TMNP and all the cyclists openly running parks down, I think they will make an example of anyone caught riding where they aren't allowed and an even bigger example of cyclists carving up the slopes where they quite obviously aren't meant to be.

 

It sucks. I still think parts of Newlands Forest should be open to shared trails, some routes that link the Constantia Nek/Newlands corridor to the cork trail etc. 

 

But no. It's a tenuous, very strained relationship and that sort of thing could just give them an excuse to shut some projects down.