Friday 8 May 2015

Cool Runnings

Like Schwarzkopf, Wiegand is a German ride manufacturer that has picked up a bit of a following however these guys have chosen to specialise in Alpine coasters and toboggan rides. Most of these are based in Europe but there are a small number scattered all around the world, including one toboggan just outside Cape Town.

As the only Wiegand ride in all of Africa it was easy for me to convince the others to include this in the itinerary. So having hailed a taxi from Table Mountain and a short drive later we found ourselves at "Cool Runnings" in Bellville.


The toboggan ride is a 770-metre ride, which is quite long for rides of this type and it's actually been around since 2007, so something I'd clearly overlooked on my last trip here.


The price is pretty reasonable with offerings for multi-ride tickets. The more you do the cheaper it is. We bought a three-ride ticket shared across the group. Its quite nice that you can take advantage of the lower prices within a group i.e. you pay for number of rides, not number of people.

The rules and regulations are fairly straightforward. Push forward to accelerate, pull back to brake, don't ride like a dick etc.

The lift hill is quite long and the gives you a nice overview of the descent section that follows.

At the top the toboggans are queued up, which is unusual as usually you roll straight into the descent section. Clearly the person behind me had ignored the third rule as she came off the lift and promptly accelerated straight into the back of me. No damage done I was soon off and doing my best to keep up (or catch up) with Thomas in front. As the most wary driver in the group I had elected to go last to not hold the others up who are much more comfortable bombing down the track. I guess I was going too slow as the dick almost caught me up in the final section.

In my defence I've crashed these before and have injured both myself and others so I'm now a little hesitant on these.

The ride was proving popular with a few people having several goes on it.


Here's a POV that someone else took.

Cool Runnings is located in the city of Bellville which is about 40 minutes East of Cape Town harbour.


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