Moving into the future

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

I will never forget that cloudy Saturday afternoon in February 2017 when I came pedalling across the Garden Route Dam wall to see the first missing signpost from a distance. As I got closer and rode from one vandalised sign post to the next I was met with many emotions ranging from extreme disappointment to intense anger. As the rain came down hard I had to turn around and head back home with many questions milling through my head as to why anyone in their right mind would do such a thing?

It happened more than a year after we started the Green Sport Foundation non-profit and the George Trails Project. Many hours of negotiations with landowners, months of planning, investment funds and a substantial sponsorship from GR Exp was down the drain through a deliberate act of vandalism and intent to destroy what was meant for good.

This was about passion, community and about our hometown George, and I took it personally. We set out to find a solution for many visiting and local mountain bikers, trail runners and hikers getting lost and putting themselves in danger in the process by providing signboards for navigation on three routes around the Saasveld plantation. The marked routes were met with enthusiasm by both locals and tourist during the December holidays and now what was going to be part of many more such signaged route systems around George, were lying in the tatters, together with our team’s hard work.

So now the question remained as to what if we put the signage back and this happens again? After all the land around George has no to very little control on it from landowners and there are around fifteen entrances between Montagu Pass and the NMU Saasveld Campus to create this unfortunate ‘free for all’ that allows a variety of vandalism to occur almost daily. We had to find a different solution and from the despair rose an opportunity to use technology to help users safely navigate to routes and trails around George.

To date we have mapped (and made available for download) more than a thousand kilometres of routes around George making George Trails the largest and most diverse mountain bike route network in the country. Hoorah! This is what eco-tourism is all about and means a lot for our local tourism, conservation, job creation and our economy. On 01 September we are taking the next step and launching our #trailrepublic passport in the form of a self-print membership card that can be obtained from our website. There are no restrictions and it is about adding even more value.

For an annual fee of R299 our new memberships will include:

• Contribution to the trail building and maintenance fund in support of the efforts of organizations such as the Hillbillies Mountain Bike Club.

• Membership to Lifetags valued at R300 per annum to help keep you safe out there.
• Downloads of more than 40 routes to self-navigate via your GPS devise or smartphone.
• A loyalty programme with substantial discounts from a variety of shops and restaurants in the region.

This income will also empower us to fund our day to day activities and to further improve the George Trails platform to our member’s benefits. Please visit our website on www.georgetrails.org.za to get your membership from 01 September 2018.