SUMMERPLACE EXPANDS BEGINNER/NOVICE/INTERMEDIATE MTB TRAILS NETWORK

David Baber and his team have extended the trails network at Summerplace Game Reserve to better cater for Beginner, Novice and Intermediate mountain bikers and offer more distance for Advanced riders. Here’s what’s new and why you should ride it as soon as possible…

Summerplace Game Reserve has always offered exciting trails for Advanced, skilled mountain bikers. But during 2024, landowner and avid mountain biker, David Baber, has been on a quest to add more trails that appeal to Beginner, Novice and Intermediate mountain bikers. He’s also made some of the existing trails less intimidating.

Earlier this year, the Orange Route was built. A mostly singletrack 23 km trail that explores the northwest section of the reserve, including three ascents and descents of a hill that adds a decent amount of elevation and some special views.

There’s now a wide range of MTB routes for Beginner, Novice and Intermediate riders. Photo: Glacier Waterberg Traverse

Over the winter, David and his team have added trails to the Langwater section of the reserve – on the left as you drive from the main gate to the Summerplace Restaurant. This is primarily a savanna area with very gradual climbs and descents. This allowed for the building of trails that link the existing small game-drive roads to deliver a Brown Route, that measures 28.4km and a longer Yellow Route, that measures 39.2km.

The Brown Route is ideal for Beginner and Intermediate level riders, starting on Aloe trail and exploring the south eastern area of the reserve.

Aloe’s rocky roll-downs made it somewhat intimidating for many riders in the past, but the trails team has added loads of soil to ensure they’re now roll-downs and more accessible to a wider range of riders. These roll-downs deliver the required momentum to fully enjoy one of the most fun, flowy trails at Summerplace Game Reserve.

Mellow Miles, Killing Kilometres, Salad, Eco Mode and Great Gnu are all new trails, which take the Brown Route into the wild-life rich plains area of the reserve, where Giraffe, Zebra, Tsessebe, Kudu and Impala are regular sightings from the saddle.

The new Pink Route is 15km long on gravel roads and jeep track – perfect for Beginners. Photo: Glacier Waterberg Traverse

The Yellow Route follows much of the Brown, but is more appropriate for Advanced and Intermediate riders looking to add distance with some engaging features.  The Yellow Route previously included Marula Flow, Marula, Aloe and Rooibos trails. It still has those, but has a fresh trail called Chicken Legs, which is now the descent off Marula Hill. It includes some switchback turns that have been superbly crafted with packed rocks. The switchbacks only occupy a short segment near the top and near the bottom of this descent, which has stunning views of the Waterberg and is a load of fun to ride.

Baber has also designed additional Beginner, Novice and Intermediate routes on less challenging sections of the original routes. So there is now one Beginner route and Four Novice routes totalling 78km in distance and four Intermediate routes that offer a total distance of 94km. With 15km of jeep track and gravel roads, the new Pink Route is designed specifically for Beginners.

David Baber checking the rocky switchback turns on Chicken Legs trail. Photo: Glacier Waterberg Traverse

“With our gravity trails now well established and attracting both high profile events and recreational riders seeking a challenging trails network, we have spent this year focussing on adding trails that all mountain bikers can enjoy. We now have a total of 12 mountain biking routes – one of which is specifically for Beginners, four routes suitable for Novices, four routes for Intermediate riders, two routes for Advanced riders and one route for Expert riders,” said Baber.

Summerplace Game Reserve offers a wide range of self-catering accommodation as well as a restaurant that serves meals for hungry mountain bikers. To book your stay at Summerplace Game Reserve to ride the new trails, click here.

Many of the new trails will be incorporated into the two-stage Glacier Waterberg Traverse, which takes place at Summerplace Game Reserve from 9-11 May 2025. To find out more, or to enter, click here.

 

INTRODUCING THE NEW ORANGE MTB ROUTE

There’s a new route at Summerplace Game Reserve that’s instantly broadened the riding options to a greater range of mountain bikers. The 22km Orange Route is ideal for lesser skilled recreational riders, but it also adds great value to experienced riders and wild-life lovers.

Already a premier mountain biking destination, Summerplace now offers even more to mountain bikers. During the summer, trailmaster, David Baber and his team added more than 25km of new mountain bike routes to the reserve’s trail network. Most of these additional kilometres went into the new Orange Route, which explores a fresh section of the reserve.

As you drive into the main gate at Summerplace, the land to your right, which includes a decent sized hill, now has many kilometers of engaging mountain bike trails. You need at least -4% gradient to create good flow and this slope ranges from -4 to -25%, which means plenty of flow.

We’ll get back to that hill in a bit though. It’s important to know that the Orange Route is a route that’s ideal for most mountain bikers. It’s got a couple of steep bits that might be a bit intimidating for some, but these are quite easy to dismount and portage. Ninety percent of the route is unintimidating and ideal for most mountain bikers.

The Orange Route starts near the Bike Village on the road that heads to the main gate. It hugs the side of the hill on a trail called Spook Huis, where many rocks have been cleared to ensure as smooth a ride as possible before it joins onto Drop to Gulley trail.

This piece of trail rolls gently down the slope in the direction of the main reserve road for a few hundred metres before it takes a left onto a trail called Old School. This is a completely new trail that winds its ways gradually in a northerly direction down to the low ground and then up the opposite slope, which is very slight in terms of gradient. It then turns east and takes you on an engaging path before turning north to join a gravel road.

You follow the gravel road for a while until you reach a boundary fence, turn right and then right again to begin the first of three ascents of the large hill that dominates this section of the reserve. David has masterfully crafted trail to make the most of this elevation, which delivers a moderate climbing challenge and stunning views.

The first descent is on a trail called Mountain Oak, which starts off steep, but which eases as you reach the gravel road where you can take a drink, chat excitedly to your mates about that cool descent before turning onto a long singletrack trail called Easy Going, which lives up to its name and allows you some freedom to enjoy more game-spotting.

The second ascent is more direct and on a jeep track road, which has some steep pitches but is superbly rewarding once you begin the second descent, which takes you about halfway down the slope before tackling the final ascent. This ascent brings you to the top of the hill again where you can appreciate some superb vistas to the south and west before dropping down the final descent on a trail called Ball Itch.

The name may be uncomfortable, but the trail is a delight! It drops 100 metres in 2km, has an average of -4.6 percent gradient and delivers some classic David Baber flow! This is sure to become one of the new favourite trails at Summerplace because no matter what your skill level, it’s so much fun.

The fun does end though, right in the dip, but you do get to take a steady pedal back to the end of the Orange Route on the gravel road, where you can process what you have just ridden or contemplate a second lap!

The Orange Route is mostly rideable for newer mountain bikers, but expect a couple of short portage bits. It’s all part of the adventure and it does allow you to pause and take in the natural beauty around you. For Intermediate and Experienced mountain bikers, the Orange Route is an absolute gem! The balance of climbing, descending and singletrack is just right and, like a small slab of your favourite chocolate, leaves you feeling both satisfied and craving more…

The Orange Route can also be considered a Mountain Biking Safari. A wide range of game can be encountered on this route, including Giraffe, Zebra, Roan Antelope, Impala, Kudu, Sable Antelope, Eland, Tsessebe, Warthog and Reedbuck, partly because the route covers a large area and partly because the vegetation isn’t too dense, which makes it easier to spot wild animals from your saddle.

For experienced/fit riders, the Orange Route is a great start or end loop as either a long warm-up or cool-down to a longer ride. It’s a highly engaging way to add another 20-odd kilometres of distance without too much toil.

To experience the new Orange Route – and all of the other mountain bike routes and trails at Summerplace Game Reserve, book your accommodation here. https://summerplacegamereserve.com/accommodation/

SUMMERPLACE MTB TEAM SETS SIGHTS ON 2024 GOALS

Following a successful launch year in 2023, Summerplace Game Reserve is pleased to confirm the continuation of its mountain bike racing team for 2024. There will still be a firm XCO racing focus, but the team members will also add some stage racing for variety and to gain experience.

The team members are Inus du Preez, Lilian Baber and Respect Ramashia, all of whom raced for Summerplace Game Reserve last year. They’re all employed by the reserve but are supplied with bikes, gear and the appropriate support required to train and race in pursuit of their goals.

Respect Ramashia

Respect will once again focus on the regional marathon races including those in Limpopo, North West and Gauteng. He secured a few podium positions at Limpopo events last year and will be looking for improved performances at the larger events this year, particularly the Ford Trailseeker Marathons.

Lilian had a very successful final year as a Junior last year, where she focused primarily on XCO racing. She was dominant in local events, including winning the South African Championship, the African Continental Championship and South African Cup Series. She also contested several international races in Europe and the World Championships in Scotland.

Lilian Baber

“This is my first year in Under-23 so I don’t have any significant goals. I will do a variety races, but XCO is still my main discipline. I will use this year to find my feet and see where I am in relation to the other Under-23 and Elite racers. I plan to gain more experience at international races in Europe and it’s also a chance for me to get more settled in marathon races, which I haven’t done many of,” said Lilian.

“I feel my base training in the off season has been good and has helped improve my strength and stamina. I’m so fortunate to live at Summerplace, which is the perfect place for mountain bike training. Not only is there more than 100km of singletrack ranging from tame to technical, but there also surrounding gravel roads,” added Lilian.

Lilian Baber and Inus du Preez

Among the races planned for Inus and Lillian in 2024 are: The Tankwa Trek, Cape Pioneer and Wines2Whales stage races, the South African XCO Champs, the African XCO Champs, the World XCO Champs (based on qualification) and four UCI XCO World Cups in Europe.

“Being supported by Summerplace to be able to travel around South Africa to race as well as compete in Europe has given me so much and I’m looking forward to making the most of that in 2024. Last year was my first full year of racing and I improved so much. I learned to race smart and my power improved significantly over the course of the year,” said Inus.

Inus du Preez

“My main focus for this year it so see how well I can do at the four UCI World Cup races in Europe and also to qualify for the South African Under-23 team to compete at the UCI World Champs in Spain. I have other races on my schedule, but those and the relevant South African qualifying races will be priority,” added Inus.

The Summerplace MTB Team do all their training at Summerplace Game Reserve. With an established trails network that includes more than 100km of singletrack, an altitude of 1400m above sea level, a wide range of trail types, several measured routes and beautiful bushveld scenery with wildlife, it’s the ideal destination for mountain bikers.

It’s easy to book your own mountain biking stay at Summerplace Game Reserve. Check out the various accommodation options here.

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