The black route is the route that caters for the fit mountain biker looking for some good testing distance over varied terrain. It is 65km and there are very little technical sections, but like a good friend of mine always says: “the faster you go, the trickier it gets!”

The black route starts off following the yellow route, but then quickly darts off into the MTO plantations where you ride between trees that far surpass us in age. There is an eerie quiet in these plantations, but this is soon broken by the sound of your knobblies singing as you head down toward the coast. You never quite hit the coast, you are always about 200m above sea level, but for a good 7km stretch you ride parallel to the coast at this height. At one stage I thought my peripheral vision was going to get an overuse injury due to the absolute amazing view to my right. At this height so close to the coast you actually see the curvature of the earth!

As for the route, it is a fairly bumpy jeep track that undulates constantly till you reach the Elands River Look Out  point. Here you can take a well deserved break before you gun it back into the plantation where a long smooth speed section awaits you. This will take you back to the blue route, that forms the second leg of the black route.

This is the perfect training ride for a MTB marathon.