Recently there’s been a fuss about the MTB trails in Tokai still being closed. But while we’re still six months from SANParks’ December 2016 opening date David Bristow went to find out what the prospects of an early opening are.
Just about everything that could be done in order to gain early access to Upper Tokai has been done, now we just wait, sort of. Opening Tokai early is just one half of the picture; the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) is going to be quite something so I hope you got your comments in.
About opening early… the problem is, the more people I speak with and the more meetings I attend, the more complicated things seem. Take SANParks for instance. In principle they are all for it – I promise you – but it is not just one department. There is an operations or “on the ground” section, there are technical, planning, admin and legal divisions. Each has its own timetables and priorities. Rehab and safety are some of the main priorities now and mountain biking, or running or horse riding, in Tokai is not always top of the pile.
After the Big Fire, Tokai was declared a disaster area and lots of conditions (legal and practical) have to be met in order for it to be re-opened. For instance, insurance cover because there are still lots of dangers lurking. AmaRider assisting TokaiMTB, stepped into that gap and has put a contract on the table to cover us. Now we wait for the SANParks legal department to sign it.
At the request of the loggers, we’ve been kept out for a year or more but many of the SANParks staff are working hard to try to speed things up, I have met with some of them. There is also the local community who is chomping at the bit and some who just don’t believe anything that comes out of the collective mouth of SANParks. That’s a pity since we cannot do anything in the park without their say-so, so building relationships and maintaining them is critical. Add to this heady mix the “1%” maverick mountain bikers, and you have a recipe for conflict.
Besides the plantation felling, there are trees waiting to fall on us that are outside the commercial logging areas. Working for Water is supposed to deal with them but they seem to be having admin issues, so the trees and the threats remain. There are slopes in danger of collapsing and huge eruptions of wattle that still have to be dealt with are among the issues.
And finally there is the not so small matter to complete a rationalisation process that works with the environmental baseline study to determine where we will and will not be able to ride (tick box). Once that is accepted by SANParks, rehabilitation of the existing tracks that have been churned up will allow the volunteers of Tokai to step in and do the actual, physical hard work for us again. Parallel to this is the EMP process that closed for comment in May, that will open up all kinds of wondrous new riding areas on the mountain.
After the current tracks are sorted, when it comes to building new tracks in Upper Tokai to create the riding destination of our dreams, that’ll still be a few years in the making. As a wise man once said, the earth is slow but the ox is patient.
Sus The Tokai Situation
Full Sus took a drive around what remains of the old Tokai Plantations with representatives from SANParks and TokaiMTB. Both parties were keen to point out that Tokai will never be what it once was. The riding experience has changed for good. When Tokai first reopens there will be very few, if any, singletracks accessible to mountain bikers. As the danger areas are cleared some of the old trails will be reopened and then construction on new trails can start.
But the SANParks priority is to allow fynbos to re-establish on the slopes of Tokai. The problem is that in some areas there hasn’t been fynbos for 120 years, so there is no seed bank in the soil. It’s going to be a slow and potentially expensive process which will have to go hand-in-hand with the constant clearing of alien vegetation. Because of this your Tokai rides will no longer be forest rides, but what you lose in shade you’ll make up for in views.
Eventually the fynbos will grow tall, and in valleys and on water courses fynbos forest clumps will form, but it’ll never provide the forest riding experience of before. Different isn’t necessarily worse though, it’s better for conservation, better for the water table and it’ll provide a more authentic Table Mountain wilderness experience.
