Mount Anderson Reserve biking tours, South Africa
| country: | South Africa |
| trip type: | Adventurous mountain biking holidays |
| departures: | Departures take place throughout the year, on request |
| price: | From £400 - £450 (4 days) excluding flights. Price includes all accommodation, meals and drinks |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
the amazing things you'll be doing
This adventurous cycling trip in the Mount Anderson Reserve, near Lydenburg, boasts some of the best single track riding in South Africa. It is a land of rugged valleys with crystal streams that reflect vulture spotted skies. Sunbirds sip from red poker aloes and eland and black wildebeest gather on mountain slopes while the bark of baboon’s echo off cliff faces. Single track weaves up to alpine heights, down winding forested valleys, along dramatic quartzite escarpments and over rocky crests. This trip is exhilarating all mountain riding.
Our cottage, a home from home, is a ranch style homestead, catering for a max of 6 guests in 3 double en-suite rooms. Trust us you'll love it. Monica, will ensure every meal is an exquisite dining experience.
Our cottage, a home from home, is a ranch style homestead, catering for a max of 6 guests in 3 double en-suite rooms. Trust us you'll love it. Monica, will ensure every meal is an exquisite dining experience.
day-by-day itinerary
| Day 1: | Meet at Golden Cottage, Mt Anderson Water Catchment Reserve, South Africa (Friday/Tuesday). Meet your hosts and guides at the cottage anytime from 14:00. We'll have an opportunity to settle in to the Golden Cottage, taking a moment to appreciate the setting, set up our bikes, and perhaps slip in a short orientation ride. |
| Day 2: | Alpine heights (Saturday/Wednesday). We're on holiday, so no wake up calls here. After a light breakfast we climb to above 2000m. We emerge on highland plains and cruise down easy winding paths, herding eland and zebra as we go, eventually dropping into the Spekboom river valley. We break for a swim and then head back to the cottage for well deserved siesta. |
| Day 3: | Bushman's trail (Sunday/Thursday). After breakfast we ride the Bushman's trail - short steep climbs, winding single track along an escarpment with sweeping views of the valley below, through late 1800s gold prospecting scars, flowing descents with technical and steep sections, past San rock art and over stream bridges. We may encounter wildlife including zebra, black wildebeest, baboons and eland. We'll lunch somewhere on the trail and be back at the cottage in the afternoon for down time. |
| Day 4: | Rush hour (Monday/Friday). A morning of leisure, or if you prefer we can hit some more trails before returning for farm style brunch. It's time to say farewell, but you'll be back for more. |
how this holiday makes a difference
|
The Mt Anderson Water Catchment Reserve was established primarily to protect the highland water resources of the eastern flowing rivers of South Africa. Many of these rivers have become the lifeblood of the Kruger National Park. Much of these areas comprise of private lands, and are funded by conservation minded individuals. We provide a valuable income for the management of these pristine highlands by offering low impact mountain biking trips.
By linking existing game trails with sustainable hand built single track we have opened the way for an alternative and sustainable land use. As a result of our success with this venture the surrounding areas are seeing the potential benefits and a network of trails encompassing the entire region is being established. In South Africa we have particular responsibilities to ensure economic empowerment of local communities through employment, service contracts and involvement, and we see the value of such efforts for long term viability and sustainability. For the ongoing maintenance of the trails on this trip we employ local disadvantaged individuals and we hope to see the creation of more jobs in the long term. Water is life and no where more so than Africa. This trip highlights the need to protect these catchment areas. In the Mount Anderson Catchment Reserve, we focus much attention on water quality and the importance of preserving water catchment areas. The accommodation in the form of an 8 bed cottage. This is the only accommodation within the 6000 hectare reserve. Waste is removed to the nearest town, Lydenberg for recycling. The cottage does use main electricity supply when guests are accommodated. All riding takes place on natural game paths on both our trips. We do not drive off-road. We encounter plentiful wildlife on our trips. Safety is our priority and we maintain safe distances of at least 50m. We remain very sensitive to creating disturbance, which is inevitable, and allow wildlife to move away freely. Our base, in the cottage, accommodating only 6 guests is the only form of accommodation in the 6000 hectare reserve, which although is connected to the main grid, is opened only when occupied. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |