Delvera Trail Run
Our trail grading: ORANGE 6B
Distance: 12km
Extremeness: 2km of technical single track and a bit of a climb...
Location: Delvera, Klapmuts, South Africa
Joggers: Corrie Erasmus, Deryck Nel, Jacques Nel, Marelize Böning & me
Today, on good Friday, we were in the mood to explore and drove through to Delvera Wine Farm, home of Dirtopia MTB Centre. I expected awesome single tracks, since Dirtopia is responsible for building & maintaining most of the MTB tracks in the Cape Winelands. I was not disappointed, it was totally awesome!
Our jog started with a number of gravel roads/jeep tracks crisscrossing the vineyards and we followed the well marked Blue MTB route slowly climbing. The sun was rising and it made for beautiful views of most of the Wineland mountains. When we reached the foot of Klapmuts Hill, Corrie and Marelize decided to turn back, while the two Nel brothers and I continued up the Black MTB route. I really enjoyed the uphill and the climb is nice & easy up to the point where you reach the jeep track going up to the top of the hill. The jeep track is extremely steep and rocky, but luckily not very long. The views from the hill are incredible and in the far distance we could see the clouds starting to build over Table Mountain. After I set my camera for a group photo it was time to negotiate the well-known Old Man Trail designed by Meurant Botha. The trail starts with an awesome 2km of very technical and rocky single track which then eases into another 2km of smooth flowing non-technical single track. We did not hold back and after the first 2km I was paste! Nevertheless, the next 2km was so inspirational that I soon forgot my tiredness and picked up the pace again. At the bottom of the hill we linked up with the Blue trail again and it was easy running all the way back to the Dirtopia MTB Centre.
Our jog started with a number of gravel roads/jeep tracks crisscrossing the vineyards and we followed the well marked Blue MTB route slowly climbing. The sun was rising and it made for beautiful views of most of the Wineland mountains. When we reached the foot of Klapmuts Hill, Corrie and Marelize decided to turn back, while the two Nel brothers and I continued up the Black MTB route. I really enjoyed the uphill and the climb is nice & easy up to the point where you reach the jeep track going up to the top of the hill. The jeep track is extremely steep and rocky, but luckily not very long. The views from the hill are incredible and in the far distance we could see the clouds starting to build over Table Mountain. After I set my camera for a group photo it was time to negotiate the well-known Old Man Trail designed by Meurant Botha. The trail starts with an awesome 2km of very technical and rocky single track which then eases into another 2km of smooth flowing non-technical single track. We did not hold back and after the first 2km I was paste! Nevertheless, the next 2km was so inspirational that I soon forgot my tiredness and picked up the pace again. At the bottom of the hill we linked up with the Blue trail again and it was easy running all the way back to the Dirtopia MTB Centre.
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| Beautiful Delvera Wine Farm scenary |
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| The extreme joggers on one of many uphills |
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| The sun rises over Delvera's vineyards |
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| Interesting angle of Simonsberg |
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| Deryck starts the Black MTB trail |
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| Klapmuts Hill summit with the Nel-brothers |
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| And so it starts... the Old Man Trail! |
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