I used to have a problem with the concept of quad biking. Yes, I do get the boyish attraction of revving engines, air drenched in petrol fumes and the caress of the wind in your hair.

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I get it for about 30 seconds. Then I start wondering about why I should fork out good money for the privilege of blundering ‘round and ‘round some farmer’s muddy feedlot for an hour or two on what, let’s be honest here, amounts to a super-sized children’s toy, a pimped-up golf cart. It just all seems so patently pointless.

All of this changed when my wife Sam, our sons Josef (8) and Benjamin (6) and I first went on a three and a half hour quad biking tour through the Elgin Valley with Nature Discovery Tours (www.naturediscoverytours.co.za) a few months ago.

They’re based in Grabouw, about an hours’ drive from Cape Town (we stayed at the very basic, but comfortable and affordable Oak Lane Cottages (www.oaklane.co.za) the night before, but you can easily get there from Cape Town for a 9 am start) and we had so much fun the first time ‘round, we’ve just been back for a second trip.

Hiking on wheels

Nature Discovery Tours’ Brian Pickering describes their idea of quad biking as “hiking on wheels”, which really works for us as a family. Sam and I love hiking in the fynbos, forest and mountains, but Joey and Ben tend to be less enthusiastic. Mention a ride on the back of a quad bike, however, and it’s hard to hold them back.

What distinguishes Nature Discovery Tours from other quad biking outfits is that you are not confined to the relatively limited space of someone’s farm or back yard. Instead, they offer trips of different duration through the whole of the Elgin Valley.

Another nice thing is that they take care to minimise the effect of their tours on the environment. They have tuned their quad bikes to run as quietly as possible, use broad, soft tyres and ride only existing tracks and roads.

Back packing

Joey and Ben aren’t old enough to ride their own quads yet, but they’re more than happy to swap back and forth between mine and Sam’s through the day. For them, just wearing a helmet for a few hours is enough to make this a brilliant adventure. Drive through a couple of face-splashing puddles of muddy rain water and they’re in boy heaven.

Our tour took us along mountain paths, through pine plantations and into areas where fynbos is rapidly re-establishing itself after the alien pine trees have been felled. The Nature Discovery guides are honorary members of Cape Nature Conservation and are very knowledgeable about local plants and animals.

The striking difference between the practically sterile pine plantations, which are being phased out from the area within the next 50 years, and the amazing fecundity of the indigenous vegetation is astounding.

Way back when

Our tour even had a historical aspect. At the top of the Gantouw Pass, the only route over the Hottentots Holland Mountains before Sir Lowry’s Pass was opened in 1830, you can still see the grooves left in the sandstone slabs by 150 years of ox wagon traffic.

Apparently it took a team of 20 oxen a whole day to drag each wagon up the steep slope and about one in every five didn’t make it to the top in one piece. We enjoyed the breathtaking views of False Bay and were glad to be back on our petrol-powered quads.

Worth the wad

At R550 per person (children under 8 go free and packed lunches are available at R65 each) this is admittedly quite an expensive way to spend your morning, but we think it’s worth it. This form of quad biking offers an opportunity to engage with nature in a very unique and intimate way and you can cover a much greater distance than you would be able to on foot in the same amount of time, especially with small children.

Oh yes, and of course you get to squeak in adolescent delight as you scramble your quad up rocky inclines and gun it down shady forest lanes. Ok, I admit it, I may have come to appreciate the whole boyish attraction thing of quadding a little bit after all.

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