Eselfontein Adventure

"Experience the oldest farm in the famous Ceres Valley, surrounded by the majestic Skurwe and Matroosberg Mountains. Experience Eselfontein." Visit their website.

This past weekend we joined a group of local riders for a mountain biking adventure on this beautiful 2500 ha farm.

 Map source: irideafrica

Friday - day 1: Ride details: 14.1 kms, 214m elevation gain

We met up with Hanco and Arné on Bain's Kloof Pass for some delicious homebaked muffins and tea while overlooking Wellington. This 30 kilometer pass was completed in 1853. Read more facts here

Clean bikes and homebaked muffins - YUM!

Driving along Mitchell's Pass

While unpacking at the Ecohuts, we struck it lucky as the owner of the farm offered to shuttle us to almost as high up as you can go on the farm.

The Ecohuts surrounded by fynbos

Hold on!!

View from the top

We descended the rocky moto enduro track, involving some bundu bashing before reaching a real mountain bike trail above "Red Bull Hill" at dusk. As the sun faded we rode through the forest dodging roots and random holes, the jeeptrack, through the river crossing and arrived back at the huts in the dark. The rest of the riders had arrived and were already enjoying a nice campfire in the lapa.

Riaan, Arné, Hanco, Reto & me  *

The "donkey" geyser, social lapa gathering and Reto's veggie bom :) *

Saturday - day 2: 28kms,  721m elevation gain

The next day had a lot in store. First up was the fun, fairly flat sandy trail - then a tough uphill slog to the pipetrack.

Starting the day with a cup of strong coffee  *

The sandy trail

At the pipeline

Enjoying the view/catching a breath

A bit more climbing....and then...

On top of the world - a great reward ;)

Picnic time!

 Jeanette, Arné, Hanco, Riaan, me, Reto - all smiles!  *

The rest was all downhill - a mixture of rocky fast and rocky pedally...

On the trails  *

Elbows out!

Trail happiness!

Two smooth forest sections lead us back to the jeep track. A couple of flats later we could refresh in the cold river, crack a beer, make jaffles and have a warm "donkey" shower!

The fairy forest..  *

Passing through!

A refreshing dip in the river

Sunday - day 3: 15.5 kms, 330m elevation gain

After breakfast the group set out on the last ride of the weekend, starting off course with a tough climb!

Pedal!!! *

More unridden trails in the distance..

Then dropping into my favorite piece of trail - "above Red Bull Hill" - a fun, fast, smooth section.

Some corners, some jumps

Boom!

The actual Red Bull Hill was long, fairly flowy and had lots of corners. The bottom stretch was more pedally and ended in a forest section. We tackled the jeeptrack leading to the huts for the last time before wrapping up a great weekend adventure :)

Foot out...  *

and foot out! *

Checking in on the MOOOOOO's/river crossing fun *

Until next time!

Lunch at the "Tolhuis" on Bain's Kloof Pass - well recommended!

Many thanks to Hanco and Arné for organising the weekend's adventure, the delicious muffins and the photos marked *

Also check out Hanco's cool video edit and their blog entries about the weekend adventures!