Mountain biking in Gqeberha’s Baakens Valley

The Government enforced lockdown at the start of the Covid epidemic followed by the subsequent business work-from-home trend has forced people out of their comfort zones to find varied methods of coping with the stresses of life and get some much-needed exercise.  

It even influenced people to relocate to areas where they have easy access to beaches, sports fields, parks, or mountain trails as a means to bring the right balance in their lives, especially among the younger working-class generation.  

Gqeberha is a city brimming with such choices.  It boasts beautiful beaches and endless mountain trails with an abundance of forests and rivers within easy access to the metropole.  One area popular to the locals is the 23km stretch named the Baakens Valley which is around 500 hectares in size and runs through the middle of the Gqeberha suburbs.  It falls under the jurisdiction of the Parks and Recreation Department and provides free walking and mountain bike trails.

Trails consist of singletrack, jeep track, switchbacks, drop-offs and numerous bridge crossings lower in the valley. Everyone knows why the city is also referred to as the Windy City, but riding in the valley offers mountain bikers and trail runners an escape from these harsh conditions.

However, such trails always need maintenance and sound reasoning encourages one to join a walking or mountain biking club of choice, not only for the sustainability of these facilities but also for one’s own safety when using it.  

One such club is called the FatTracks Mountain Bike Club and it is run by volunteers who maintain and even expand the network of trails. A quote from a promotional flyer of the club explains more:

“One of the main contributors to the development of this trail network in the Baakens Valley is the Fat Tracks Mountain Bike Club.

Established in 1989, FatTracks was the first MTB club in South Africa. Through its membership and various sponsors, the club has developed multiple trails around the Gqeberha area and much of the Baakens Valley network keeping the Baakens Valley in great condition.

The club employs two permanent trail builders responsible for expanding and maintaining the trail network.

Trail builders are truly the unsung heroes of mountain biking.

Without their efforts, there would be no trails. And the Baakens Valley, could not remain in sustainable riding condition, year after year. Trail builders restore it after seasonal floods.

Ride as much or as little, as you like.  The beauty of the network is the multiple entry and exit points, depending on where you are situated in Port Elizabeth. The result is that thousands of mountain bikers are just a few kilometres from a vast trail network. In a world where land access for recreation is becoming more and more of a problem, it does not get better than this.

Baakens Valley’s official trailhead is at the Conti FatTracks containers near the Elliot Centre on the William Moffat Expressway. From there, the trail loops along the valley, before culminating at the Bridge Street Brewery.”

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