Mountain bikers in South Africa have a rather interesting and sometimes precarious relationship with the land on which they ride. Unlike surfers who ride the ocean that belongs to everyone and the roadies who ride on public roads and the sky divers who fly the open skies, mountain bikers either find themselves as part time tenants, guests or trespassers of someone else's land. Land ownership in South Africa usually means fences and private access unlike the UK where the right of way law allows the public to use a network of traditional routes and thoroughfares.
Luckily we seem to have more and more friendly farmers who are willing to allow us to leave a few tyre tracks on their land. Even better are the enterprising farmers who are prepared to lay on some specially crafted singletrack for us to ride on. Our future to ride seems to be linked very closely to the farming community and their willingness to share their land with us. It is something to appreciate and to remember that every time you are out on the dirt you are borrowing someone else's land, so look after it and be thankful because there is lots more where that came from.
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