Cycle routes a gift to community

Date: 28 August 2014 By: Andries van Zyl

Sarah Venter of Makhado (Louis Trichardt) is as fragile as any of us, but this doesn’t deter this lion-hearted woman from tackling mountains, so to speak.

In a matter of weeks, she and Johan van Dijkhorst succeeded in mustering the goodwill of a number of local people, schools and businesses and laid out five neat mountain cycling routes as a gift to the community. The cycling routes were officially opened the past weekend.

“Please feel free to enjoy it by trying it out and write your comments in the booklet next to the map at the arboretum. There is also a blackboard to leave notes for your fellow cyclers if you wish,” explains Sarah.

All five well-marked routes start and end at the arboretum at the bottom of the Hanglip road. It is graded from very easy to very difficult and are therefore suitable for both families and experienced mountain bikers. The 5km cross-country route built by Johan, Casper Venter and Bas Rennings, with help from other cyclers and local schoolboys, is rather difficult, and even a bit dangerous.

The routes are all done with Komatiland’s consent and are, at the moment, free for anyone's use. All local people living at the compound next to the arboretum and the vhaVenda community of Songozwi royal village up in the mountains know about the routes and are pro enjoying our mountain in this tacit way. The P&L Cycling Club also supports the venture in various ways.

There are exceptional indigenous trees in this extraordinary, biodiverse mist belt of the mountain and even some fynbos-type vegetation, with plenty of birds on Twitchers’ covet lists to be seen on these routes too.  More information about the routes themselves is available on the website www.soutpansbergcycling.co.za.

There was widespread appreciation from the local community for Sarah and Johan’s achievement. “Thank you for all the hard work and commitment to make cycling fun and enjoyable for all of us!” said Rick and Marnelle Pessegueiro (co-owners of the local KFCs, who sponsored the signage of the five new routes).

“Thanks Sarah and Johan.  We know how much effort you put in all of this. It is really working out so well. Our family of five already tried out some of the routes and really enjoyed it,” remarked the Rennings family (Bas Rennings created the website for these routes).

“Wow, amazing routes. Love the new signs and names for routes. Thank you for all the hard work and the beauty of Route 47!” was the response of young, upcoming cycling star Kombo Bere.

“On behalf of the whole wider community and of the next generations of Soutpansbergers and of businesses that will benefit by having more people coming to our area, all my admiration and gratitude for this clever, meaningful gift to the people of Vhembe,” said Elthea Schlesinger.

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Andries van Zyl

Andries joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in April 1993 as a darkroom assistant. Within a couple of months he moved over to the production side of the newspaper and eventually doubled as a reporter. In 1995 he left the newspaper group and travelled overseas for a couple of months. In 1996, Andries rejoined the Zoutpansberger as a reporter. In August 2002, he was appointed as News Editor of the Zoutpansberger, a position he holds until today.

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