Garden Route Trail Park with the Monster Crew

There has been a lot of talk about the Garden Route Trail Park lately, so much so that Monster Energy Cape Town decided to take a road trip down to the trail park to find out first hand exactly what it’s like. After a long drive we were finally greeted by a sign letting us know we were in the right place.

As you pull into the parking area you can immediately see the level of effort that has been put into the trail park and all that it offers. At the entrance to the park is where you can find the Trail Café, a place where you can get great quality light meals, coffee’s etc. Most importantly for any rider is the array of bike equipment on hand should you find yourself needing to do some small emergency bike repairs. Even iyou don’t have a bike, you can even rent one there too.

Just across from the Trail Café is where the magic starts happening as this is where you can find the pump track, a great flowing never-ending loop system that offers any one at any skill level hours of fun as well as quite a good workout.

After cruising around on the pump track for a while Rob Dormehl, the man to thank for this amazing place came over and introduced himself to the Monster crew. What a legend, one of the friendliest and most down to earth characters you will come by. After chatting to him for a few minutes he offered to show us around and then even drive in convoy with us to the top of the trails, to make sure we didn’t get lost. The drive was great and allowed us to really see all that the place had to offer, although at times the dirt road did prove to be a bit of a handful to navigate and unfortunately one of the potholes claimed the radiator of our van.

After a few tears, we unloaded everything out of the van and into the Monster Energy truck, leaving only our bikes out so we could finally get some real trail riding in. The trail that Rob had taken us to was named Jungle Fever which seemed appropriate given that a whole troop of baboons decided to take a break from whatever it is baboons get up to, and chill on one of the long tabletops. Standing at the start of Jungle fever was a thrill and knowing that the only thing we knew for certain about the track was that it would be a blast.

Jungle Fever was an amazing trail, it’s the main jump line at the trail park, featuring a large double jump, several large tabletops, some short and tricky rollers and some great berms. It’s fast and flows well, allowing even experienced riders to push themselves and have some fun. One thing to take note of though, and I guess this really is the case with all good trails in South Africa, is that at times there are some uphill climbs, nothing that’s going to make you feel as though you’re climbing half way up Everest, but just something to take note of, although it’s only fair that one earns all the smiles they’ll be having bombing down the trails.

Getting down to the bottom of the trails is also great because not only did you just have a fantastic ride, but you can finish it off with some cold beverages, or even a milkshake if you’re feeling a little wild, needless to say we opted for the Trail Cafés fantastic tasting Nutella and peanut butter milkshakes followed with a few loops on the pump track.

Overall the Garden Route Trail Park is an amazing place, and one that any real mountain biker has to go check out, even if only once. It offers more than 25km’s of clearly marked, well looked after singletrack that will remind you of why you fell in love with mountain biking. Thanks again for everything Rob, you really are a champion.