Africa’s first bike-themed hotel

Trail’s End Bike Hotel, Africa’s first bike hotel, is situated in Grabouw, within the Overberg district of the Western Cape.

What visitors can expect

Grabouw is situated about 65 km from Cape Town and the Kogelberg biosphere and Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve border it. Markedly, the fynbos in the region is one of the most diverse in the country.

“Reaching the town of Grabouw entails a mere hour’s drive from Cape Town over the Hottentots Holland Mountains with a descent into one of the most beautiful valleys in the Western Cape – the Elgin Valley – filled with flowers, fruit, fynbos and wine.”
SA-Venues

The idea behind Africa’s first bike hotel was basically to mimic the cosy wooden lodges found in the Swiss Alps. However, instead of offering skiing as the main activity, the hotel offers mountain biking, trail running, and hiking, as reported by Cape Town Magazine.

The Tourism Grading Council of South Africa has awarded Trail’s End Bike Hotel a five star rating in the Backpackers and Hostels category.

Additionally, the venue also houses the only bicycle museum on the continent.

Bicycle museum

The bicycle museum will feature an exact replica of a boneshaker – the first type of bicycle that arrived in South Africa, reaching Cape Town in the early 1860s.

After failing to obtain one of the last remaining boneshakers in the country, the museum decided to create an exact replica instead. David Mercer, a master frame builder from Cape Town, is currently constructing the frame of their boneshaker. Once completed, Chris Wilemse, a renowned carpenter, will construct the wooden wheels.

Around 1870, Walter Richard Lloyd, a trader and farmer, brought a metal boneshaker made in England to Grahamstown (now Makhanda) in the Eastern Cape. The Lloyd family donated this bike to the Albany Museum in the 1960s. It is now on display as an example of Victoriana in the Observatory Museum.

Explore history at the bike museum

Visitors to the bicycle museum can learn about Sol Plaatje’s bicycle journey, which he undertook to research the effects of the 1913 Land Act – undoubtedly one of the most interesting stories in South Africa’s history.

The museum also features bikes ridden by famous cyclists like Riaan Manser. He was the first man to cycle the continent of Africa. The display shows it exactly as he rode it, including the bags and bottles he used.

Manser became the first person to cycle around the perimeter of Africa and subsequently gained widespread recognition. For over 24 months, alone and without any assistance, he pedalled 37 000 km through 34 countries, some of which are ranked as the most dangerous worldwide.