Sunday 28 August 2011 was the first time back for me after about a 6 month absence from riding the slopes of Table Mountain. This has been due to a few reasons. Firstly, not long after Jayde and I got married in November 2010 we moved from our flat in Rondebosch to a beautiful house in the green leafy southern suburbs neighborhood of Bergvliet. This positioned me at the foot of the Constantiaberg mountain and thus plenty of fine mountain biking with the likes of the renowned Tokai trails a few minutes ride from our front door. I no longer ventured round the mountain and into the Rhodes Memorial and Table Mountain region as often as I did when we were staying back in Rondebosch. The second reason, which probably compliments the first is that I do most of my training alone and with the notable increase in crime incidences on the slopes of Table Mountain in 2011 it became, quite honestly less desirable to venture into that territory and risk loosing my valuable steed!
I have to admit that I was missing riding there and the change in terrain and scenery did, however, cross my mind a number of times. I often thought of how I used to ride all round Rhodes Memorial and Table Mountain in the dark early hours of the morning and late evenings armed with only my bring light to help me see where I was going.
After three months off the bike due to injury and now in the easy building up phase of training, the Table Mountain Bikers Association awareness ride was the perfect opportunity to return to the slopes of Table Mountain. It was great to see so many mountain bikers out there, I also dragged Jayde along too. Although it is unfortunate that these kind of things need to take place, however, it is truly awesome to see the motivated people out there willing to take a stand against crime and do something about it. Take a look at there website, http://www.tablemountainbikers.co.za/ write the important phone numbers down and support the organizations of these people in aid of safer environment for us all.
