For those uninformed, MTB stands for mountain biking (bicycling?), although to be clear, no mountains were biked on, but my legs certainly felt like we did.
Having just bought a snazzy new mountain bicycle, my second snazzy one after the road bike, I though it apt to head down south and test out the new equipment and while probably a little late at this point of the financial investment, see if the trail riding lifestyle was for me. So, L and I drove down to Margaret River for two weeks for some cycling, relaxing and degustation. The trails we tried were partly inspired by the tourist app of Margaret River “Find The Fun”. These are the trails we tried out;
The whole trail was 16km and took us a leisurely 90 mins. It was mostly 4wd tracks, undulating with one river crossing. Which, on approach made us want to avoid it, but turned out to be no effort to cross.
We stuck to the South easterly part of the trail, which gave me the first taste of cambered corners and real unassisted speed on a trail! We cycled enough for an hour worth of effort and called it a day, but knew we would return.
Boranup Forest
This one I guess isn’t an official trail. I’ve driven through here many times and even seen other MTBs slog it up the hills, and always thought about returning here with my bicycle.
We parked up at the end of Vlam near Caves Rd. There’s no official parking area, but it’s where most of the cycling tours at the forest start.
The hills were ridiculously hard and neverending.
The marked route was a bit of a fail. Very steep, single track, completely overgrown meant we stayed on the 4wd track and stayed on it all the way down the hill, which actually turned out to be a little bit branchey (that is…lots of branches on the track), but still a lot of fun. After climbing for the first half of the journey, literally, it was great to cycle downhill for the second half.
The green path, lacking in jumps and tight corners meant it ended up pretty fast, and going round the outside of the others, felt the longest. The medium track introduced some ‘roll-able’ jumps, and taller and sharper turns. The hardest track introduced one jump that wasn’t roll-able, that is, it had a vertical drop on the other side, meaning a minimum speed and a bit of a hop was needed to clear it. Once we’d finished each route, a non-stop uphill cycle on a 4wd track brought us back to the raised platform at the beginning. Unfortunately I’m a little light on photos, though there might be a highlight reel at the end of this page, who knows!
Meelup & Dunsborough MTB Trails
This one feels like two entities in one. We parked at the Dunsborough Country Club and paid the $10 day fee (I see it more as a parking fee to be honest), and cycled on the trails next to the golf course, until it brought us out the north side into the Meelup National Park. There were too many trails to count and much more technical than we were used to. Rock gardens, skinny trail sections, more extreme jumps. One of the faster sections back into the golf club had me genuinely concerned for my safety… Must remember to use brakes. Also…there may have been a casualty on this section of the trip.
Wadandi Track (Witchcliffe)
The southern part of the Wadandi Track takes you to Witchcliffe. A little less bustling than the north section, the place still has a couple of shops and an excellent breakfast location at Yardbyrd Cafe. The trail felt a bout more remote than the north section and very relaxing.
Margaret River to Prevelly
I keep driving past the cycle trails to Prevelly and really wanted to give it a go, but also knew there’d be a gruelling climb on the return journey. The vast majority of the journey was on bitumen paths (so a road bicycle would have sufficed), however I did go off piste for a short section to justify the new existence of the new bicycle!
I made a video, in fact, I recorded a lot of videos. I cut, and chopped and added some cheap tracks and managed to make an 18min video about the trip, with chapters! Great for watching on the toilet :)
