Had a great chicken braai with everyone last night and had many laughs over some cold beers. This morning I was up at 6 and got packing. John made us all a banting breakfast which was delicious and at 9:15 I was on my bike and had the final goodbyes.
Dirt road all the way to Clanwilliam then about 40km of tar and then dirt for the next 450 km to Springbok on the R355.
But from Louis Leopold's grve where it turns to dirt again I was on farmer's land and it was just basically a track all the way to the R355 which was 55 km with about 13 gates I had to stop and open , push the bike through, close the gate, get on the bike and go again, and it was a little warm at 35 deg Celsius ( 92 deg F).
Was a amazing scenery, just miles of nothing with mountains everywhere and blue skies. Had to cross Tankwa River which is bone dry, but thick sand with basketball size boulders here and there
For good measure. I made it across and then for a distance they had graded the road and it was soft and stony and I managed to waddle through it . But then was out of that and was uphill rocky road which I did manage to drop the bike on. It took everything to upright it, believe me.
I passed one car on that section and there were other challenging sections which I was lucky to ride out. Finally got to the R355 and that is an actual diet road , actually the longest dirt road in SA.
Dirt road all the way to Clanwilliam then about 40km of tar and then dirt for the next 450 km to Springbok on the R355.
But from Louis Leopold's grve where it turns to dirt again I was on farmer's land and it was just basically a track all the way to the R355 which was 55 km with about 13 gates I had to stop and open , push the bike through, close the gate, get on the bike and go again, and it was a little warm at 35 deg Celsius ( 92 deg F).
Was a amazing scenery, just miles of nothing with mountains everywhere and blue skies. Had to cross Tankwa River which is bone dry, but thick sand with basketball size boulders here and there
For good measure. I made it across and then for a distance they had graded the road and it was soft and stony and I managed to waddle through it . But then was out of that and was uphill rocky road which I did manage to drop the bike on. It took everything to upright it, believe me.
I passed one car on that section and there were other challenging sections which I was lucky to ride out. Finally got to the R355 and that is an actual diet road , actually the longest dirt road in SA.
The vistas were stunning and the ever changing scenery was beautiful. Got to Springbok on fumes, did 56km on my reserve and it took 16 L which is what a full tank is. Went and camped at the caravan park (R85) and decided to sleep under the stars, well I was carried away by the mozzies and then at 4 am the wind started howling, was unreal, but the mozzies were gone!
