Gariep Dam MTB Trails

About Gariep Dam MTB Trails

Where: Gariep Dam Forever Resorts, near Venterstad or Norvalspont
Level: easy; trails for family on gravel roads
Type of route: various out and back routes
Best: summer tends toward thunder storms and hot days, whilst winter is dry with cold early mornings and evenings

The MTB trails on the edge of the huge Gariep Dam offer a combination of gravel roads, game paths, single track, and jeep track that start in the Forever Resort and head into the Oviston Nature Reserve.

From the resort it is only a 4 km ride to the gate of the reserve (cyclists pay a conservation fee) and continuous gravel paths that make up more than 150 km worth of dirt riding for the whole family. Right around the dam is nature reserve, with a network of gravel roads that circle the dam; an extensive network of trails.

There is enough to keep your eyes busy in the reserve – mountain zebra, kudu and red hartebeest, black wildebeest, oryx and herds of springbok. The scenery is incredible and there is so much riding to do in whatever combination grabs you that you could be here for days on the edge of the dam and not get bored.

Stay on the main road for a 30 km loop, but there are also smaller jeep tracks and gravel roads off the main road. It is not all straight and flat either, kopjes add a fair bit of up and down to the journey. And there is every chance you won't pass a single car whilst there (everyone is down on the water).

Head into the interior of the reserve for a faster and more demanding ride.

Should the reserve not live up to expectations, follow the dirt R701 back to the N1 (away from the Gariep Dam in other words), across the highway to a t-junction, where you take a right onto Donkerpoort Road – almost 50 km of dirt road through breathtaking Karoo scenery.