Everyone knows that the better your skills, the more you can enjoy your mountain biking. But not everyone makes an effort to invest in improving their skills. Well, that wasn’t the case for 49 mountain bikers that attended the fourth annual Waterberg Summer Skills Camp from 4-5 January 2023 at Summerplace Game Reserve. Here’s what went down and information about the next one.

If ever there was a perfect venue to host a mountain bike skills training camp, it’s Summerplace Game Reserve. Every January there’s a group of mountain bikers of varying levels that spend three days at the Waterberg Training Camp and leave with improved confidence, honed skills and an eagerness to keep improving.

Organised and hosted by Summerplace Game Reserve, the skills camp is aimed at all levels of rider – and all ages. The majority of the participants at the 2023 edition were youngsters, but there were also parents of those riders that enjoyed the benefits as well as adults relatively new to mountain biking keen to develop their ability.

Summerplace Game Reserve is one of South Africa’s premier mountain biking destinations and is specifically geared to deliver stimulating, memorable mountain biking experiences, including training camps, skills clinics and various mountain biking events or races. There’s a range of primarily singletrack purpose-built trails, which include features and obstacles to challenge mountain bikers.

The Summerplace Game Reserve Trails Team, under the expert guidance of co-owner, David Baber, is constantly building fresh trails and upgrading existing trails. Ahead of the January Skills Camp they enhanced the main skills area in front of the Bike Village with more jumps, rocky roll-downs and other challenging features.

A total of 65 people attended the multi-day camp, which was structured to ensure the riders were challenged and progressed at their own pace. Obviously, parents of the children were there, some of whom participated in the skills camp, but all of whom made it into a fun, family getaway to the bush.

There were six experienced and certified coaches that took the riders through a range of skills over the three days in an effort to ensure they better understood the fundamental elements of corners, technical climbs, roll-downs/drop-offs, technical climbs and jumps.

“Most skills clinics take place over a few hours. But to attend a skills camp over a couple of days at an appropriate venue like Summerplace ensures that everyone gets ample time to learn and practice their new skills techniques. The skills coaches at this camp are also available to help any rider with a little extra time and focus to ensure that everyone leaves a more competent mountain biker,” said Markus van Niekerk, Chief Skills Instructor.

“A multi-day skills camp like this also creates an opportunity for families to spend time together as well as allow mountain bikers to meet new people with a similar passion and even make new friends,” added Van Niekerk.

The 2023 Waterberg Winter Skills Camp will be held from Friday 30 June-Sunday 2 July. Details are still being finalised, but it’s sensible to make an accommodation booking soon to avoid disappointment as numbers are limited. Email bookings@summerplacegamereserve.com to secure you place.

Mountain biking is part of our DNA at Summerplace Game Reserve. How can it not be when we have world-class trails, good year-round weather and staff that live and breathe mountain biking? We also invest in our people and have established a Summerplace Mountain Bike Racing team for 2023, comprising entirely of staff members. Meet the team and find out about their goals for 2023.

There are five members of the Summerplace Mountain Bike Team. Four of them are young and very competitive. They are Lilian Baber (Lily), Ignatius du Preez (Inus), Eliz-Mari Pretorius (Liz) and Respect Ramashia. The fifth member is David Baber, who is an occasional competitor, but always-on manager of the squad.

Although the team is new, there is a lot of experience and credibility within the squad members, who are fortunate to be able to do all of their training and race-preparation on the Summerplace Game Reserve trails and roads.

For 2023, Lily and Inus are focusing on XCO racing during the first half of the year. They are competing at all the SA Cup XCO rounds as well as the XCO National Championships.

Over the past few years, Lily has been a multiple national XCO champion and is aiming to add the Junior Women’s national XCO champs title to her list of titles this year. She won Round 1 of the 2023 SA XCO Cup in Stellenbosch recently and, with the support of Summerplace, looks set for a strong showing this year.

As of end-February 2023, Lily is No. 8 on the UCI XCO Junior Women rankings. She will be racing some international events later in the year, including a couple of UCI World Cup rounds and, if selected, the World Championships in Scotland.

Inus races in the Under-23 Men’s division which competes with the Elite men. Against a strong international field at Round 1 of the 2023 XCO SA Cup in Stellenbosch earlier this month he finished a respectable 19^th (14^th South African).

Both Inus and Lily will compete at the 2023 SA Marathon Champs in Paarl in early March. It’s always a prestigious event and fits in well with their racing schedule for the first half of the year.

In the second half of the year, Inus and Lily will add some Enduro racing to their schedule. Lily is the current South African Junior Women’s Enduro Champion and is one of the fastest women overall in this discipline. Despite not focusing fully on this discipline yet, Inus is the current Gauteng Under-23 Men’s Enduro Champion.

Liz and Respect have committed to racing the King Price Marathon Series. With six events in four provinces, it’s not only the largest marathon series in South Africa, but also the biggest in the world!

At Round 1 in late January at Banhoek, near Stellenbosch, Liz finished a very respectable sixth overall in the women’s race and third South African. Both Liz and Respect will contest Round 2 at Buffelsdrift, Pretoria on 11 March.

“We are very proud of our mountain bike team. They are highly committed and very focused on their goals,” said Simone Baber, Summerplace Game Reserve Director. “We have had really beautiful kit made with Santini and the team members are great ambassadors for Summerplace Game Reserve wherever they are training or racing.

“By committing our riders to XCO, Enduro and Marathon races throughout the country, we are both spreading Summerplace Game Reserve awareness and supporting our talented staff members. We want every mountain biker in South Africa to come and enjoy our amazing trails and wonderful bushveld hospitality,” added Baber.

To find out more about Summerplace Game Reserve, visit the website here: https://www.summerplacegamereserve.com

Summerplace Game Reserve has become one of the premier mountain biking destinations in South Africa. There are a few reasons for this, but mostly, it’s the trails. And the man behind the trails is David Baber. Here’s some insight into one of South Africa’s finest trail-builders.

Most call him Dave because that’s less formal than David. But also, because he rides with most of the guests that visit Summerplace and he develops a relationship with almost everyone that has ridden his trails. He likes to show other mountain bikers his trails and he likes to see the smiles and hear the satisfied post-ride banter. Dave is in touch with his target market every single day.

Dave turned 50 recently. Because he rides daily, he’s fitter and more skilled than most 50-year-olds. He also only builds trails at Summerplace. It’s his land which he has lived on all his life. He bought Summerplace from his dad when he was 22 with a loan from the bank and he predominantly farmed cattle for more than three decades.  When his kids, Ben, Josh and Lilian, started mountain bike racing in 2012, Dave started to build trails for them on the farm.

“They all raced XCO. When I saw different XCO courses I came home and built trails that would help our kids train for that kind of racing. That eventually developed into building longer trails as my passion for building trails and riding them grew,” explains Dave of how he got into trail-building.

Ben and Josh no longer race, but Lilian (18) has continued and is the current top all-round Junior women’s racer in the country. She is the reigning national Enduro and XCO champion and finished a close second at the 2023 SA Marathon Champs.

“Because I travel with Lili a lot for her racing, I make a point of either riding or examining the trails in different parts of the country. I have also done a few Enduro races to get a feel for the trails at popular South African trails parks to ensure I’m staying ahead with what I’m building at Summerplace,” explains Dave.

There is over 100km of mountain bike trails at Summerplace now, most of it singletrack. Although Dave is aware of other trails parks in the country, he likes to ensure that his trails in the Waterberg have a signature feel. Dave has a way of embracing the gradient and natural features to ensure his trails are consistently engaging and rewarding. Because there are a number of rocky ridges at Summerplace, many of the trails incorporate these. Rocky roll-downs are common, all of which are all rideable. If there’s a very technical rocky feature, Dave creates a B Line around it.

“I don’t like boring trails, so I ensure all my trails have features to stimulate the rider. If there’s no rocks, then there are plenty of flat corners or some jumps to ensure riders of my trails are challenged,” he explains. “The general skill level of mountain bikers is constantly improving and I like my trails to cater for experienced, competent riders.”

Having said that, there are still ample trails at Summerplace for those who aren’t too skilled or strong.

Around 18 months ago, when Paul Rose became a partner at Summerplace Farmstay, they acquired the six neighbouring farms and created Summerplace Game Reserve. This expanded the land area to 3500 hectares and expanded Dave’s mountain bike trail canvas, which he has relished! They also employed a team of eight to help Dave build and maintain the trails.

“We are constantly building new or enhancing existing trails. While we have the machinery to build trails, we still build the trails by hand. This gives the trails a more natural feel, both from a riding perspective and an aesthetic perspective,” explains Dave. “I like to find the flow in nature on my trails and the only way you can really achieve that is by walking the land to mark out the line for new trails.”

Although he does build them, don’t expect to find many berms at Summerplace.

“I place berms where they are obviously needed, but only to ensure flow is maintained. The way I build my trails already includes natural flow. I also want to reward riders that know how to corner properly. By building too many berms you take that away. Berms also require constant maintenance and as a wilderness trails park, that’s not our focus,” adds Dave.

Dave is a qualified mountain bike skills instructor. He uses that to help anyone that’s struggling on certain features at Summerplace.

“Most trails feature hesitancy is because the rider hasn’t been taught how to ride that particular feature. I like people to leave Summerplace better riders than when they came, so I find myself giving skills advice quite often. We do also offer formal skills training sessions at Summerplace for those that want a fully focused formal session or two,” says Dave.

Dave is an ambassador for Lynnwood Cyclery, https://www.lynnwoodcyclery.co.za the Specialized store in Pretoria. He currently does most of his riding on the new Stumpjumper Evo, but also loves his Enduro.

Ask anyone that’s ridden mountain bikes at Summerplace about the trails. You’ll get a smile, followed by compliments. If you haven’t yet ridden David Baber’s trails, you’re missing out. Summerplace Game Reserve has elegant self-catering accommodation as well as camping. This is important. You need a few days to really ride all the trails and appreciate Dave’s craftsmanship. Book your next mountain biking trip here https://www.summerplacegamereserve.com/copy-of-accommodation-1  and see why Dave’s trail-building is so respected.

Summerplace Game Reserve recently became home to another 15 Mountain Reedbuck. It was a complicated project that was seamlessly executed by a small, highly skilled team of wildlife professionals in just half a day. Here’s how it was done and why the Mountain Reedbuck is important to our reserve.

“We know that there are a handful of Mountain Reedbuck at Summerplace, but we wanted to introduce more to create a free-range breeding population in the Waterberg. This introduction concludes our first phase of conservation commitment to selected antelope species at Summerplace, and adds to our recent introduction of Sable, Tsessebe, Roan and Common Reedbuck,” said Summerplace Game Reserve conservationist, John Mackie.

Mackie has been heading up the introduction of the various animals to Summerplace with the overall intention of firstly ensuring their adaption to their new home is smooth and secondly, that they flourish. For the Mountain Reedbuck, he sourced the animals from the nearby Elandsberg Private Nature Reserve.

“They have a thriving population of around 250 indigenous Limpopo Mountain Reedbuck at Elandsberg. Although only 80km away as the crow flies, Elandsberg is quite different to here. Summerplace is in the Waterberg and has quite a range of gradient, geology and vegetation and it’s actually highly suitable for both Common Reedbuck and Mountain Reedbuck. We brought 15 Common Reedbuck into Summerplace about a year ago and now it was the turn of the Mountain Reedbuck,” explained Mackie.

Mackie anticipated a five-hour capture session at Elandsberg, but was pleasantly surprised at the efficiency of the capture team, who completed the exercise in half that time with a very slick process.

A helicopter carrying a veterinarian flew from the base to find Mountain Reedbuck. The vet would pick out an animal, work out how much tranquiliser it would require to incapacitate, load the dart appropriately and shoot the animal. Then he’d get lowered down by the helicopter to pick the animal up in his arms, take off again and fly to the base, where he handed each animal to the ground crew without moving away from the helicopter. The helicopter then immediately whisked him off again to dart and collect the next animal.

On the ground, a strong guy ran to the helicopter, took the sedated animal from the vet, carried the animal to a bakkie, which then reversed to the game transport trailer where another vet would be told what tranquiliser dosage was used on that particular animal, she would then give the animal an antibiotic and vitamin jab, reverse the tranquiliser, apply a de-tick liquid and do a quick health check before it was loaded into the transport trailer.

[We have created a video reel on our Instagram account so you can see the slick process in action.]

“It’s a highly specialized project. It’s not like darting Impala,” explained Mackie. “The darting vet needs to pick out which animal he wants, work out how much tranquiliser it will need according to its size, shoot the dart at the animal, jump out of the helicopter when it drops to the ground, pick up the darted buck, which weighs up to 30 kilogrammes, get back in the helicopter, holding the sedated buck and then hand it over to the ground crew. He also needs to shoot the right number of males and females. It’s not easy to pick out young males from the air because they don’t yet have horns. They were truly incredible with how efficiently they carried out the process,” remarked Mackie after attending the capture from start to finish.

The 15-strong capture saw the transfer of 11 females, two of which were pregnant, two young males and two breeding males. Once at Summerplace, the animals were released into the large grass field near the Bike Village. Some were still a bit groggy and needed a helping hand to get out of the trailer before bounding off into the bush and eventually, expectedly, to the higher ground on the reserve.

“It’s important to release them near the centre of the reserve so that they can get accustomed to the reserve no matter which way they run. If they encounter a fence early on, they might try and crawl under it and we don’t want that. We hope that they settle quickly. If they do, we anticipate the number will grow to around 50 in the next five years,” added Mackie.

The Mountain Reedbuck is a relatively small antelope. It measures around 75cm at the shoulder and weighs an average of 30kg. It has a grey coat with a white underbelly and reddish-brown head and shoulders. The male has ridged horns of around 15cm, which curve forwards. It’s predominantly a grazer and requires a good water supply. It normally lives in herds of up to six and occupies ridges and hillsides in rocky regions and high-altitude grasslands at 1500-5000 metres above sea level.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the Mountain Reedbuck is considered threatened.