Monday, July 6, 2009

Day 17 & 18: Baviaanskloof & The Moordenaars Karoo

Typed 2 paragraphs last night & fell asleep & deleted the lot between snores !!! So here's round 2:

We left a very chilly Kudu Kaya in the heart of the Baviaanskloof @ around 05:30am & headed up the Baviaanskloof for around 50km before the road 'flattened out' a bit. We essentially did a 170km of the Trans-Baviaanskloof race route back up to Willomore.


Included was a 'fantastic' 15km uphill twisting & turning up around the kloofs mountains before dropping straight back down into the river valley below !!! And where there's a long downhill, there's almost always a bloody longer uphill.

Stunning scenery & geological landscape features greeted us all the way & even a buffalo or two not 5m off the road. The weather was perfect too.

We stopped briefly at Dam se Drift for a wonderful 'plaaskos' lunch which Estelle had prepared for us. Man oh man - Lamb & potato caserole, venison pie, creamed cauliflower, salad & death by chocolate with custard for dessert ! I nearly never left & had serious thoughts of taking up farming right there !

Nonetheless we continued on climbing up to Willomore and arrived @ 20:30pm after a very long & tiring 170km 2 stage day. The temporary BB fix held too.

Yesterday after a 05:30am start we did another 170km stage from Willomore to Prince Albert traversing the Moordenaars Karoo & skirting the snow capped Swartberg range the entire way.

We stopped at Rondawel farm for lunch - wonderful hospitality & great food - Vetkoek, soup, lasagne & coke. Wow - Thx Chris & Elna.
The day was extremely long, the road corrugated in places and quite undulating. We made it by 19:00pm.

Johan the Prince Albert bike expert waited for us along the way & would have offered us refreshment had we stopped. We didn't stop but caught up with him at our guest house lodging where Ria & Lindsay were fantastic hosts.

He helped me epoxy my BB in place & I hope it will last to the finish. Thank you to my mates David, Dawn & to Johan for being there for me on that major mechanical issue. After all this effort it would be heart breaking not to finish.


1 comment:

  1. Hi Derek,
    Did our "epoxy composite" work on the BB. All the way to the end?
    Another feather in the cap of Mr Keith Prattley?

    ReplyDelete