Mountain Biking in Milwane

After a lazy Saturday morning including 3 hours spent reading in bed (Doug has been reading, ’28 Stories of AIDS in Africa’ and I’ve been reading, ‘Methland’) and an indulgent breakfast burrito (enabled by the discovery of $9 tortillas and tobasco at the ‘fancy’ grocery store), Doug and I rallied ourselves and our gear and headed into the Enzulwini Valley. About 30 minutes from our place is one of the three game reserves operated by the King. Via some of the other more adventurous expats in town and our faithful Lonely Planet, we knew that the Milwane Game Reserve offered mountain biking, so we spent Saturday afternoon checking it out. Because it is a Game Reserve with ‘game drives’ there are numerous jeep trails throughout the park – these make for easy and relaxing ‘mountain biking’ as the trails are wide and the path ahead is obvious (it’s pretty much a dirt road). I felt a little bit like an ‘old lady’ with my helmet on as rode out of camp because there didn’t seem to be much danger awaiting us on the jeep trails (this is not foreshadowing – we did not encounter any danger). With Doug rattling on about traumatic brain injuries and helmets I felt momentarily annoyed at having married a doctor, but was quickly appeased by the herd of zebra we encountered just outside of camp.

Close-up We rented the bikes for 2 hours and with Doug along, you know we were sure to make it to every corner of the park in our allotted time. It was a fantastic afternoon…outdoors, in the middle of nowhere, on a mountain bike safari!
Although Doug usually consults maps with zeal, the Milwane map was quickly disregarded because single trek trails became visible from the jeep trails but were not included on the map. We explored the real ‘mountain biking’ that Milwane offered and later learned that there are 65 kilometers of single trek trails in the reserve (Doug nearly passed out in euphoria with this news).

Single trek trails
Sometimes, you just had to get off and carry your bike
We rode around to the hippo pond, saw some baby warthogs, lots of random heards of DLT’s (deer-like-things) and just as we were driving out of the park, we saw the daddy of all crocodiles sunning himself on the side of the road.
On our way out, we purchased a couple’s ‘Wild Card’ which permits entry into all national parks in Southern Africa for free for a year, and Doug restarted a previous conversation about buying a mountain bike – so, I am sure we’ll be back to Milwane, soon!