Not all of our events are extreme...find out about the Rhodes Relax

• Rhodes Village was voted in the top 20 Secret Places in Getaway magazine: there is a lot to offer families and destination visitors
• Mums will benefit from ‘hands-free’ time by using the supervised play-park area where little ones can be entertained in safety while mums ride or run (or relax!)
• Sheep on the spit for “National Braai Day” Friday 24 September

For R250, Rhodes Relax entrants may take part in as many of the following six activities as they want to

• Friday morning: 15km “round-about-town’ ride (this you the opportunity to have an exclusive ‘sneak preview’ of the Night Light route whilst the Extreme riders are out on their first ride!)
  
  
• Friday morning: 5km fun run
  
  
• Friday evening: 15km ‘Night Light’ night ride
  
  
• Saturday morning: Guided 40km ‘out-and-back’ ride along exquisite willow-lined Maarten’s Hoek valley – you can do the whole thing or turn back when you’ve had enough and take a swim in the crystal Bell River whilst waiting for the rest of the group to return
  
  
• Saturday morning: San rock art cave tour
  
  
• Saturday afternoon: 2km “Farmhouse Walk” for mums with babies in prams or mums with toddlers on black bikes, JD bugs or with ‘fairy wheels’.
  
  Parents or Grandparents can walk alongside their kids, swim at a relaxed river pool, and walk to a nearby farmhouse for tea, rusks and koeksusters. The kids can feed and hold newborn baby lambs

There are also other offerings available on request (extra cost involved). Please request information and pre-book directly.

• Horse rides around the village
• Guided fly-fishing tuition

The Bonitas antonapps Rhodes Extreme (formerly the Rhodes Challenge) is run by the Rhodes MTB Club, a non-profit club dedicated to furthering MTB experiences in the Eastern Cape Drakensberg Highlands, utilising the unique character of Rhodes Village (www.rhodesvillage.co.za) and its pristine mountain surroundings. Their aim is to present rider teams with a unique and extreme multiday high-altitude MTB stage race in a ‘clover leaf’ format out of the village. Although challenging and unique, the course will be manageable by any reasonably fit mountain biker.

Now that the event has now become part of the Bonitas Wild Series, additional funding and support can be given to further developing the race, as well as to meeting the conservation and community upliftment objectives set by the organisers and 2009 title sponsor antonapps.

Providing you with value

We are cognisant of the fact that not every mountain biker is a millionaire – and neither should you need to be. Having committed yourself to come to Rhodes Village, it is important to us that you experience 'end-to-end' value rather than feeling like the victim of yet another rip-off on the race calendar. 2009 saw the introduction of the first team event enabling us to drop costs per rider and encourage a road-trip and fun weekend away with mates or family. 2010 prices include all meals to ensure even greater levels of convenience for riders, at a very affordable rate.

Hosting zone for high-altitude trainers

Rhodes Village also has impeccable credentials as a high-altitude training zone and we would like to see riders using the infrastructure and developing network of trails, many of which are charted on GPS, as a hospitable and accommodating base for quality training. Uniquely positioned on the Freedom Trail, the village hosts pioneering Freedom Challenge MTB riders refuelling during their mid-winter 2300km 26-day cut-off epic 'Ride Across South Africa' as well as being the final destination of the ‘Ride to Rhodes’, a 550km six-day supported stage race in the southern and south-west Drakensberg.

Enabling a country community

This highland region relies predominantly on farming and tourism. Attracting explorers, adventurers and travellers to the village to partake in Rhodes Extreme and other mountain biking events plays an important role in the economy of the area. Benefits from your direct and indirect spend filter through the entire community, including recipient partner organisations such as the Rhodes School. The philosophy is to create and increase the number of meaningful opportunities associated with the Rhodes Extreme, rather than become the paymaster to a never-ending line of beneficiaries wanting a handout.

Developing the race

The success of future races relies on the involvement of dedicated fanatics who can turn dreams into reality. Should you see value in becoming involved in the Bonitas antonapps Rhodes Extreme as a sponsor or other partner, please contact Pete Dippenaar on 083 390 5069 or Hillbilly_za@vodamail.co.za.

Developing local riders

It is not our fault that we paid more for a group-set than some locals earn in a year. However, when we leave our city cocoons and visit a simple area where impoverishment is commonplace and conditions are harsh, it sometimes leaves us feeling the empty impotence brought on by not knowing where to start helping, or whether it will make a difference. The Rhodes Extreme will make simple giving easy and ensure the difference is felt and appreciated: opportunities range from donating a new tree for the village’s streets to bringing along your old cycling kit (or an old bike) for a development rider. We will assist you in putting your name to a cause.

Members of the co-creators squad of The Rhodes Tree Project include (from left) Vuyani Lozi (Vido), Bruce Beyer, and Mlungisi Dalicuba (AB). They are pictured here with a newly planted tree.

Rhodes Village is above the tree-line which means that no large indigenous trees are to be found at this altitude, as they cannot survive the cold and oxygen deficiency at 1821m. How is it, then, that the village is full of ancient and enormous trees?

Local legend has it that the village was named Rhodes in the hopes that the mining-magnate and then Prime Minister of the Cape, Cecil John Rhodes, would bless the village with a railway line. Alas, this was not to be, and the legend has it that he sent a wagonload of trees and 500 pounds instead. 

Many of the trees in town are as old as the village. They form an important part of the history of the town and are thus also worthy of the conservation status bestowed on the village in 1997. The ‘visitors that never left’ include Normandy poplars (Italy), oaks (Europe), pines, cypresses, cedars, willows, pears, amongst others – a veritable arboretum.

As these trees reach the end of their life cycle, we’re starting to lose some of them to disease, lightning damage, wind damage and old age. In 2007,  ‘Work for Water’ took down the Crack Willows which lined the banks of the Bell River as part of a national project. Alien Black Locust trees are invading parts of the town and old Weeping Willows are burnt out for firewood by locals.

The Rhodes Tree Project

The idea behind this project is to plant new trees to beautify the village, while at the same time offsetting our carbon footprint made by/during our visits to Rhodes.

Bruce Beyer, an Architect and Landscaper from Cape Town (www.beyerhonig.com), is a landowner in Rhodes and serves on the village aesthetics advisory committee. Bruce has surveyed the village trees and designed a development plan. The plan will provide:

• A new generation of trees for the town in the form of new avenues
• A tree-replacement strategy
• A new avenue into town to bring down the dust levels, link Rhodes with Zakhele
• Trees around the township
• Trees to screen/integrate the water tanks, police station and cell phone mast

“Please help us by donating towards this dream.”

Some of the large trees in Rhodes		Pines dying at the NG Kerk have been topped for safety.

All trees planted will be:

• Specified according to the design through a consultative approach with village residents and local and conservation authorities
• Healthy, disease-free specimens protected by stakes and mesh to avoid browsing and vandalism
• Planted into decent, well-prepared holes with two cartons of 90-day ‘Dri-Water’
• Planted by locals to assist in employment creation  and watered by Senqu municipality workers
• Catalogued with cadastral information by our town surveyor, Theo Welter, for later inclusion as part of the Rhodes Tree project Carbon Credits programme.

Benefits to you or your organisation include:

• Being able to offset your footprint by earning Carbon Credits (see Carbon Calculator at www.orcafoundation.com/carboncalculator.html for reference only). If you’re travelling from Jo’burg (1600km return) you’ll need to plant half a tree, and if you’re coming up from Cape Town (2800km return) you’ll need to plant one tree per trip to Rhodes.

The police station (pink building) is in need of more trees.		The project aims to screen out cell phone masts and other eyesores.

How much does it cost to donate trees?

A breakdown of the costs per tree is included below. This is a non-profit venture and all costs listed here are to cover the venture in such a far-off place. Costs will come down as the number of trees ordered increases. We also plan to teach local individuals or teams to run the project. All accounts and activities of The Rhodes Tree Project are totally transparent.

Costs for first 20 trees ordered

Costs for additional trees, per 20 trees

When making a deposit, please indicate your full name as reference, and copy your deposit proof to Bruce at bb@beyerhonig.com.
 
Bank account information:
Rhodes Tree Project c/o Bruce Beyer
ABSA Bank
Branch no: 512 809
Acc no: 9220 8266 81
Reference: (your name and surname)