One of the oldest mountain biking events on the KwaZulu-Natal calendar – the Giant’s Castle Mountain Bike Challenge took place last weekend, the 23rd of May. The challenge involves a 50km route and is known as one of the toughest one-day mountain-biking events in the country.
This year’s event was staged in celebration of the rides’ 20th year and gave riders the opportunity to enjoy the magnificent Giant’s Castle surroundings for one last time.
This 20th Celebratory Ride lets us reflect back on the legacy of this event. Back to where it all started in 1995, when a small group of avid mountain bikers had a vision for ‘conquering the Giant’ and raising funds for the Natal Parks Board Conservation Trust. They were led by Bruce Houghting, whose on-going dedication and commitment to this event and conservation is, simply put, inspirational. The first official Giants Castle Mountain Bike Challenge was staged on the 27th April 1997. The efforts of the riders and sponsors raised an amazing R34 000, which was handed over to the Natal Parks Board Conservation Trust in support of the monitoring and tracking of Bearded Vultures.
Since 1997, the event has raised over R2 500 000 for the conservation efforts of Wildlands and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife. This would not have been possible without the incredible commitment of the thousands of riders who have taken on the challenge of the “Giant” over the years!
“These funds are being ploughed back into Giant’s Castle and the Maloti-Drakensberg Park in terms of management infrastructure and Bearded Vulture conservation including tracking movement patterns of the birds, and enabling environmental education in the schools of the area,” said Deputy Director of Conservation SPACE at Wildlands, Kevin McCann. He then urged the riders to think about their significant contribution to the conservation efforts through their participation not only in this event but the Wild Series as a whole. The Bearded Vulture is an iconic species of the Maloti Drakensberg mountains, and requires significant intervention in order to survive into the long-term, including the provision of safe feeding areas, understanding their movement patterns and improving the awareness of the general public through visiting the new Giants Castle vulture hide, generously funded by N3TC.
A big thank you goes out to all who have supported this initiative from the beginning, such as David Sanders and Gary Preston who have ridden ever event since 1997. A special thanks to our sponsors Sunday Tribune and STIHL who have made it possible to stage this amazing event in the spectacular Maloti Drakensberg Mountain.
WILDTRUST (registered as the Wildlands Conservation Trust - IT No: 4329/1991/PMB)