Overview
Situated on the scenic South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal less than an hour away from Durban, Rocky Bay Resort is the perfect getaway. Surrounded by golden beaches, indigenous forests and rolling hills, this resort now also offers a network of mountain-bike trails meandering in and out of sugar-cane fields, indigenous bush and coastal forest, allowing you to explore this beautiful region on your iron steed.
On your bike
Starting at Rocky Bay Resort’s main gate, the trails head off into Ellingham Estate, a private sugar-cane estate. For the first 3km all the trails use the same farm road, before the 11km trail splits away from the three other trails. All the trials make use of farm roads, jeep tracks and great compacted smooth singletrack. The elevation gain on the trials varies, from a total climb of 400m on the 19km trail to 620m on the 29km and 780m on the 36km trail.
After the initial 3km on the farm road, the 11km trail follows a mix of singletrack, jeep tracks and farm roads, meandering in and out of coastal forest and sugar cane before heading back downhill to Rocky Bay and the beach. The 19km, 29km, and 36km trails follow singletrack and then run along the N2 highway across the river. They then drop down the ‘snake’ onto farm roads, before climbing to the 19km split from the 29km and 36km trails. The 19km that forms part of the world-famous Joburg2C and Sani2C trails now drops down the hill and runs along the riverbank, crossing over the river and following it to the climb up to the ‘3 Bitches’. It eventually enters beautiful singletrack in the coastal forest; keep your eyes peeled for the small and rare red duikers. Once out of the forest singletrack, it is a downhill run to the beach at Rocky Bay.
The 29km and 36km trials climb along a jeep track up to ‘The Devil’ and then you hit the fast downhill singletrack all the way to the bottom of the valley and back onto a farm road. Here the trails follow and then cross the river, onto another jeep track and singletrack section, still following the river. At 14km the 29km and 36km trails split up. The 29km trail continues on farm road and singletrack along the river, before another climb lets you join up with the original 19km trail at the 18km mark.
Once the 36km trail splits from the 29km trail, it follows a farm road that climbs out of the valley for about 1.5km before heading onto several kilometres of singletrack and jeep track bliss. You will eventually join up with the 29km trail at the 21km mark and then with the 19km trail at the 24km mark. The last 4km is a nice downhill, with an awesome view of the ocean, all the way down to Rocky Bay and the resort. Don’t underestimate the 36km ride; it is ‘bitter-sweet’.
Wildlife
There is a very good possibility that you might bump into the following during your ride: Bushbuck, Grey Duiker, Blue Duiker, Bush Pigs, Vervet monkeys, Grey mongoose, Banded mongoose, Crested cranes, Fish Eagles and many more varieties of bird species.
Off the bike
The resort has a host of activities available on-site or nearby, like swimming, snorkeling, scuba diving, shark-cage diving, deep-sea fishing, rock surf fishing, trail running, golf and birding.
GPS: 30°20′08.2″ South 030°43′57.9″ East
