Cape Winelands District Mountain Biking Trails

The boundaries of this municipality, which covers an area of 22,289 square kilometres (8,606 sq mi),[3] coincide roughly with the boundaries of the geographical area that has been known since the early days of the Cape Colony as "The Boland". In Afrikaans Boland means "up land" or "the higher land" or "the land above" (i.e. in contrast to the low coastal areas of the original Dutch settlement at the Cape). However, the term "Boland", as originally used, was a loose concept, with no defined borders (cf. the informal but not meaningless terms "The Sahara" or "The Rocky Mountains"). The Boland is generally mountainous, with range after range of beautiful and isolated sandstone peaks reaching towards 2000m but also has broad, fertile valleys that are home to some of the country's finest vineyards.

The region has a Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry summers are hot and cool, damp winters, with snow on the peaks during August and September. The diverse geography includes peaks, ranges, escarpments, valleys, cliffs, rivers, pools, waterfalls, screes, canyons, springs, forests, caves and other natural features.

The Cape Winelands District Municipality is divided into five local municipalities, which are described in the following table.
Name Seat Population
(2011) Area
(km2) Density
(inhabitants/km2)
Witzenberg[4] Ceres 115,946 10,753 10.8
Drakenstein[5] Paarl 251,262 1,538 163.4
Stellenbosch[6] Stellenbosch 155,733 831 187.4
Breede Valley[7] Worcester 166,825 3,833 43.5
Langeberg[8] Ashton 97,724 4,518 21.6
Total 787,490 21,473 36.7