An old friends wedding meant that we had the excuse to visit my old home town of Howick a few weeks back. I hadn’t ridden there for a good few years and reports kept getting back to me that the trail network had improved after the huge fire 4 years ago, so it was with excitement that Louise, Harry and myself landed in Durban airport.

The good folks at 2Ride Bike Rentals had dropped off a bike rack at the car rental company and we soon were on the road to Howick. Viki from 2Ride was super helpful and even went so far as to deliver 3 bike boxes to us for the return flight home, complete with all the bubble wrap and protection we could use… for free! Great to see someone going the extra mile and we highly reccomend them if you are looking to hire bike racks in Durban.

We couldn’t pass Giba Gorge without sampling their trails, so decided to take a squizz at what all the fuss is about. First impressions were great and the well made trails only made us smile more.

It was great to see so many kids using the park, and especially that they were from all sorts of different backgrounds.

The dirt jumps were massive and the BMX track is huge but the kids were still having fun on it and developing their pumping skills. The competitions and racing there must be fantastic to watch! The park itself is well laid out and has got maps, a cycle store and a restaurant to cater for the whole family.

We hit the green mtb route (maybe 10km or so?) which had some fun free-ride type stuff in it- a few berms, some north shore sections and some hucks-the only thing that detracted from the experience was the noise from the nearby N3 highway.

It must be great for Durban mountain bikers to have this on their doorstep though, and we would have loved to have checked out the other trails. We are visiting again in April during the MTB World Cup - anyone keen to join us for a ride?