Mountain Biking: Ghardeya Circuit - Nabeul

Distance: 8km

Time: 30 minutes

Difficulty: easy

Altitude difference: 85m up and down

GPS track

This is an easy going, fun trail and potentially fast if you’re up for it. The route goes through beautiful and typically Tunisian style forest (mainly eucalyptus) and is unspoilt by polution. Great ride all together!

Finding the trailhead of this mountain bike route is a little bit difficult. From Tunis or Hammamet, go in the direction of Nabeul. Around Nabeul there is a bypass road that heads into the direction Korba. After Nabeul look out for the signpost for Somaa in a left direction (at a roundabout). Follow this road. After the turn-off to Somaa stay on this road for 1.5km. Look out for a spray-painted sign VTT in green on the left. Take this dirt track and follow it for about 500 metres. Keep left and find a place to park your car or hit the trail straight away if you’re by bike.

The trail first heads into westerly direction with a very sandy start. 100m after that it turns southeast. The track is wide and solid with only a few sections of sandy bits, nothing major. After roughly 1.7km the road bends in northernly direction where it forks. Take the sharp right turn going direction south again which is the start of a fun downhill section.

The track bends right to the north again and now it’s a bit of a climb in open terrain. Keep right when the track forks. A small steep climb follows. It levels out after that. For about a kilometre it’s a pretty straight stretch of trail. Then at the T-junction, turn left. Now the road curves around the hill side. The last section of the loop has a few short sandy sections. Stay on the main trail that leads to where you started.

The plan: single track mtb park Sidi Bou Said

Deprived from mountain biking for a while now, I see potential trails everywhere. The area that is on the radar for a while now is an awesome bit of no-mans land between Sidi Bou Said and La Marsa. It's a roughly 15ha woodland with both pine and deciduous trees and is situated on a hill with about 40 metres maximum hight difference. Currently the woodland is a wasteland, owned by the Tunisian government. It is a shame it's not being used, apart from some folk who secretly drink and make a mess of this wonderful spot.

Potential bike heaven

So I've taken up the task to try and convert this bit of land into a mountain bike park. This week I've been exploring the area and got really psyched about the incredible potential this place has. Although the altitude difference is not big with creative trail design you can build swooping trails through the trees, lot's of interval up and down and make maximum use of the slope. The vegetation is not thick so in theory trail building can start tomorrow. But as it would be great to promote the sport and get the Tunisians to get a taste for biking, I'll go through the proper procedure to realise the project.

Beautiful trees and cactus in Sidi Bou  Said woodland

So the first step is to find the right people to talk to. I am in touch with local cycle enthusiast and campaigner Adel Beznine who may be able to point me in the right direction.

A random projection of trails, just to show you can squeeze 4km of single track out of this bit of forest easily. And plenty of room for extensions on the opposite side of the road!