The West Coast National Park mountain bike trail is located on the Langebaan Lagoon 90min from Cape Town. The MTB trail is a unique way to experience mountain biking in the West Coast National Park. This trail is very scenic and is not technically challenging. It is a pleasant ride with great views and a unique opportunity to cycle in a national park. Out in the open it is like a biking safari that lets you feel and smell the park and see and hear the birds and animals.
The closest town is Langebaan and is a easy to moderate route up to 18km long. The MTB trail is 40% tar and 60% jeep track in a circular form with red and green trail markings. The trailhead is at the Langebaan gate for the West Coast National Park with normal park entry fees. Be careful of Ostriches, keep your distance and watch out for snakes, puffaders and Cape Cobras, especially from September to March.
Mountain Bike Trail Description
This West Coast MTB trail allows you to enjoy many experiences from an intimate up close feel in amongst the fynbos, to the breathtaking views of the Lagoon from top of Seeberg. A variety of animals can be spotted, including caracal, bat eared foxes, porcupines, duiker, bontebok, springbok, ostriches, and a world class selection of birds.
Easy Route
The ride starts off at the Park gate and is marked from this point. The basic route is marked with green arrows indicating the shorter easier route. The first half of the trail follows the park tar road and is rather hilly. It is a peaceful and scenic cycle, low to no traffic means that you have the road all to yourself. Then the best part of the ride starts as you turn off the tar onto a rocky jeep track that descends down towards the lagoon shore. At this turning point you will be heading back along Oostewal on an old disused dirt track. The track takes advantage of the elevation to give some of the best views of the lagoon and Postberg. It eventually passes the Seeberg bird hide which provides great viewing of the large variety of wader and shore feeder birds, before popping out at the Langebaan gate.
Harder Route
The red arrows offer two challenging detours off the basic green route. The first is a short steep dirt climb up to Seeberg view point. This is the toughest part of the ride, but the views from the top are awesome and worthwhile. After a brief stop the fast downhill takes riders back down to the tar before taking the second red arrow turn off up past Mooimaak. This old farmstead is now incorporated into the park. The open grassy plains provide good opportunities to spot some game like bontebok, springbok and duiker. The sandy singletrack and jeep track then leads back down towards the lagoon to rejoin the green route.
For an extended 10 km ride park in Langebaan town at the beach and ride to the park gate for the start of the trail. For an even longer ride, go all the way around the Lagoon to Postberg and do 70-80km in total, mostly on tar.
Looking for other trails, check out MTB Trails on the Cape West Coast.
