On your bike

Delvera is the home of Dirtopia and therefore the stomping ground of Meurant Botha, the ‘Old Man Trail’ of South African mountain biking, and what you get on this Stellenbosch wine estate is an all-round MTB experience. This is as close as you’ll get to a proper Trail Centre in the Western Cape: you can walk into the shop and purchase your ride permit, stock up on energy drinks and food, buy a new helmet or even hire a mountain bike if you have left yours at home (don’t laugh – we know people who’ve done this).

Head off from the Trail Centre along a steep gravel road going downhill towards the dam and turn left at the bottom to follow the directional signs for the Blue route. Cross the earth dam wall and start crisscrossing the vineyards as you make your way up the climb. At 3km, you will get to the legendary pepper tree where, on a hot day, you can sit in the shade and enjoy some refreshment before heading off once more up the slopes of Klapmuts Hill for a further 2.5km.

This is in effect the highest point along the trail, so most of your climbing is done and you can begin to relish the downhill. The ride back down is sheer delight. The trail itself is not particularly wide and the surface is pretty rocky in places, so it requires lots of concentra­tion. The reward, however, is a piece of singletrack so sublime that you will wonder why you don’t ride the Delvera Route every damn weekend

Bomb the switchbacks all the way down through the Renosterveld Conservancy, across the face of the hill and finally down to the jeep track at the bottom. There’s a wooden bridge across a donga as you slash into the valley, so keep a beady eye out for that. And the good news is that there is even more singletrack coming – it’s around the corner, and all you have to do is climb a meagre 60m before you can crank it up yet again

Once you’ve slammed the final stretch of singletrack through the poplar forests, a quick downhill past the farm dam awaits, but take care as it is steep and rough. Finish off the experience with a spot of good farm cooking at the on-site restaurant – you’ve earned it. Oh ja, that poplar forest has a stretch of North Shore trail (if you don’t know what it is, think a narrow boardwalk raised on stilts), but you need big kahunas to pull that off.

Bike Hire:
Standard mountain bikes (front suspension) for hire from R100 (including helmet, patchkits, waterbottle) small, medium and large available. (if rented for an event away from the farm, price is R200 per day). Two Dual XC suspension Giant VT2 bikes for hire from R150, small and large available.

350m 4X track littered with stunts and more options added regularly. The main track is a BMX-style course descending all the way to the finish. Rollers and tabletops make it possible for anyone to have fun.

Pumptrack: What is a pump track? A cross between a BMX, dual and jump track for mountain bikes and BMXes. Learn how to keep flow and corner on this super-technical track built between 4 walls in the ld pig sty. Advanced riders can do over 15 different transfer jump combinations.

Northshore Forest: Super technical elevated wooden trails with several dirt options in between. Over 100 meters of elevated trails! The trails and dirt lines between the trees offers a perfect hideaway from the wind and sun in the summer.

Kids BMX track: Non-technical BMX style track for the little ones. Just below the restaurant so parents can keep an eye on the action.