By Carl-Nils Kuchenmeister

The black trail was far more 'natural' like those in Cape Town

Day 2:

Now Scotland isn’t really known as the sunshine capital of the world so we weren’t really expecting much even in Summer but we had been treated to blue skies and warm weather since we arrived, until the second day that is. We decided to do the black route this time, which was suppose to be a 30km +- pedal with some good technical sections along the way (Check out the map here).

Well the trail didn’t disappoint, as soon as we hit the trail we knew we where in for a bit of tough time. Most of the trails at Glentress are pretty smooth and you can get away with riding a hardtail no problem but when the trail is made up of golf ball sized stones and scattered with other bone shaking goodies like the black route was, a full susser is really the only way to go. The ride started with a steep rocky climb ascending up into the mist while meandering its way through a series of valleys and ridges, littered with a few technical rocky down hills.

The further into the ride, the darker, windier and wetter it got. By the time we reached the apex of the route it was pretty miserable and looked much more like the Scotland we were expecting. After a short rest, huddling next to a radio tower we where finally on our way back and could finally enjoy the down hills.Oh yeah!

Louise getting the camera confused

The trails where a bit damp but still had loads of grip. Unlike Kwa-Zulu Natal trails which are mostly on clay soil which gets pretty damn slippery when wet, the soil in blighty is comprised mostly of chalk which doesn’t change much in rainy conditions. Being the hardest route in Glentress there where a few tricky little rocky sections that were made even trickier with slick conditions. Normally I’m the one to be a bit cautious of steep, scary looking sections and Harry just goes for it, but for once Harry actually wimped out and walked a section I rode…well tried too I didn’t quite make it all the way down but at least I tried! (I had to put in the evidence here!-Ed)

You don't see this very often-Shame on Harry for caring too much for his chainrings

We all made it down to the bottom in one piece with no drama except for Harry having his usual multiple punctures. Seeing as our ride was pretty intense and the weather was pretty crummy we only had one ride that day, which gave our bodies some time to recover for the next day’s riding. (You didn’t mention how we left you behind on the super fast techy section of the ‘Deliverance’ trail (pictured below). -Ed)

Not much beats following your best mates down trails like these

Thanks for reading and look out for the next day’s report in the following days…