Botmas to Jonkers Trail Run

Our trail grading: BROWN 7B

Distance: 12km

Extremeness: Very rough ascent and a lot of "unused" single track

Location: Jonkershoek, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Joggers: Andries Heyns, Dirk van der Merwe (partially), Wim Morris, Brand Wessels & me

This morning we got up early and first dropped our cars off at the Jonkershoek gate before making our way to the cul de sac in Stellenbosch where you stop when you're crazy enough to climb Botmaskop. We started with an easy jog, listening to some running commentary from Dirk. When I took the first photo below Wim was proposing an extreme jogging challenge which Andries won. This is an old strategy from Wim to tap the energy of the younger joggers. Luckily I did not fall for it... again. Dirk left us after the challenge and we started to make our way up the very steep slopes of Botmaskop. We were just in time to watch the sun rise over Jonkershoek, Stellenbosch and even Cape Town! From here we followed a (non-existing) single track towards the Pieke (the highest two peaks in Jonkershoek). At the foot of the Pieke we turned unto the jeep track visible in the last photo below. We then linked up with a number of fast descending single tracks and MTB trails. The last single track heading home deserves a special mention... it is flat, beautiful, social and somehow peaceful. A very awesome way to finish a very demanding extreme jog!