Riverbed cycle challenge in Kgalagadi

[BunnyHugger]

I think Indy, getting back on the merits or demerits of a cycle challenge, that cycling is a lot less environmentally damaging than we think. (I cycle a lot so I speak pretty much from experience although there is a difference between road and off-road cycling and I don't do the off-road stuff.) I don't see it quite the same way as you and many others do and I'm not advocating it be done. I'm playing "devils advocate" and trying to show that it is not as bad as many think.

The thing is the way it is run and presented. It could be seen as a challenge to ride it, but a "challenge" in cycling speak, is a race. This should not be done as a race. It should (if it goes ahead) be done as a low impact ride with stringent rules n place that are enforced (on pain of death almost) if not complied with.

Any signs of a 13kg bike and a say 100 kg rider (with kit in his backpack), will disappear within a couple of days of the event. If it is done weekly, or even possibly monthly, there will be permanent signs of it and that is undesirable. Any less than that, and it wont be noticeable at all.

Another thing is this: Will the money raised be used for something meaningful? And by this I mean will it be spent wisely? Or will it just give SANPARKS management another reason to withhold funding for important issues and misspend it elsewhere?

In light of the current management and their current failure to address the Rhino poaching crisis, I am not a supporter of anything that raises funds for them. I am not sure what I should be doing therefore to help the current crisis and I can't do more than vote for an opposition to current ruling party.

I still say though, that a bike ride is not as harmful to a nature reserve as many may think. One car will do a lot more damage than 100 cyclists. And we all drive in the reserves.

[iNdlovu]

For sure, I doubt that a few bikes will cause much physical damage in the riverbed, (are their backup vehicles allowed in the riverbed or do they have to stay on the road?) but what about the disturbance of nesting raptors and other life forms in the riverbed. And then of paramount importance, what kind of precedent does a thing like this set? As said by myself before, if a had booked a stay in KTP a year ago only to find on arrival a cycle race/challenge going on at that time, I'd demand my money back, never to return. The few bucks they end up making out of this thing (and after all it is all about money) is just not worth it. IMHO

[BunnyHugger]

Indy, if its organised properly, they don't really need a support vehicle. That would make it a "challenge".

And if they do have one, then it should stick to the roads, or at least it should be run close to the management roads so any vehicles will not be in the river beds.
I think a nesting raptor or any bird will get over the sight of a loon on a bike riding past the base of a tree in a river bed.

The impact of a few bikes will be less than a herd of ellies using the same path.

And the other thing is something like this should be done far away from the public eye. We wouldn't want thousands of loonies like me hankering after a bike ride around KTP.

[Lisbeth]

KTP has a much more delicate ecosystem than the KNP. Less animal species and less animals, less flora, water only in immovable points etc. Think of the poor animals living in dens under the sand, like mice, rats, gerbils and alike and even hyenas and bat-eared foxes etc. There are hundreds of those

It would have been possible to do it in the roads as they are difficult for the cars, imagine for a mountain bike, but...... the onlookers would not have the possibility to follow the race

[BunnyHugger]

Lis, I'm not sure I understand your point.

The "footprint" of a mountain bike is less than half of the size of your hand. (both wheels added together). The weight is also far less than that of a car by about 900 Kg for an average car and way more than that of a 4 wheel drive vehicle. (I think a Land Rover is about 1500 kg.)

Plus a ride like this is not a spectator type ride. Or it shouldn't be. Water will be a problem but bikes have bottle cages into which bottles are inserted. Mountain bikers also use a thing called a "camelback" which is a bladder inside a backpack. The rider drinks from a tube he puts in his mouth. This will not work to well though if the rider has to carry food and other kit in a backpack.

Is such a ride is properly organised, there is very little need for support vehicles and they would be the major problem as far as I'm concerned. The bike plus rider is pretty much harmless. Problems will arise if a rider hits a fox hole, falls and injures himself or if the bike is badly damaged and can no longer be ridden. How do they plan to get rider to a hospital or the bike out of the river bed.

If the vehicles follow the same route as the bikes, then I am vehemently opposed to the whole idea.

All I'm saying is depending on how its arranged, it might not be such a monster as most think.

[Richprins]

The vehicles will stay on the roads according to the organiser/s...hopefully!

[BunnyHugger]

The vehicles will stay on the roads according to the organiser/s...hopefully!

Yeah, and the SANDF and SAPS will help stop Rhino poaching.

And the CEO of SANPARKS knows what he's doing.

I think we all know that what is said and what is done, are often poles apart. In essence therefore, I am against anything organised by SANPARKS to raise money for whatever cause because I have trust issues with the management and running of our national heritage. So far, they have done little (nothing) to earn my trust and respect.

So even if I am just a baboon barking from the tree tops, hopefully my barking will alert some poor hapless animal to the presence of a predator and it can escape being dinner.

Therapy helps, but raving and ranting is cheaper and the results are more immediate.

[iNdlovu]

BH

[Penga Ndlovu]

Very wel put BH

(I still do not like it)

[H. erectus]

I think we all know that what is said and what is done, are often poles apart. In essence therefore, I am against anything organised by SANPARKS to raise money for whatever cause because I have trust issues with the management and running of our national heritage. So far, they have done little (nothing) to earn my trust and respect.

This idea of a cycle challenge still remains a lucrative/ludicrous idea!! BH you are a cyclist and your point is valid!!, I support that however
why is Sanparks forever using their ill gotten authority to use their very base of existence, to make money when it all just seems to be pouring
in!!!

By example, a idea of this nature outside their borders would have forced from me the utmost
of respect for them but!!!, they go about using land, inherited cheaply for grandious moves,

yet will plead poverty at the HR's stoep.

Custodianship of conservation is no longer the norm instead has become custodianship of a bottomless pit of ill got!!