Day 10: Weather Demons - Over the Stormberg to Romansfontein

Weather is horrendous. Driving rain, sleet, massive head winds & mud, mud, mud. Haven't enjoyed today at all and have almost lost my sense of humour ! There was a lot of wet muddy farm tracks and footpaths through the veld to negotiate today. The constant grating of muck in our chains, cranks, deraileurs and brakes was a stark reminder that this was not a joy ride but a serious challenge.
Getting over the Stormberg in howling bitterly cold wind was'nt funny either especially when the jeep track and then eventually the goat tracks run out near the top and you're left wondering how the hell you're going to get down now.



Fortuntaely the sheep know the way and scaring them off worked very well because they will naturally take the known footpaths down off the side of the mountain even when you can't see any. In thsis case the path runs down over a rocky dry water course and down alongside a ravine.
Once over the railway line and past the blockhouse it was more deep muddy farm tracks through fields awash in water to get to the district road again. Like i said not a fun day at all and very difficult to enjoy your surroundings and teh historical significance of the place.

We finally arrived at Romansfontein sometime after 7pm and were warmly met by Stephani and her daughters who very kindly took our muddy and other dirty kit to get washed. There was hot freshly brewed filter coffee and rusks to see us through to dinner too.

Stephani is an angel when it comes to us Freedom Challenge lot and she made sure we all had a place to sleep, were fed fantastic food (Homemade bread, spiced lamb casserole with rice etc) and made sure we knew where to wash our bikes, ourselves and store our kit etc.

The warmest place to be was with the dogs hogging the little bit of space left in front of the farm AGA. Every other available space is dedicated to our wet muddy shoes and other kit that couldn't be tumble dried !!! Leaving those lovely ladies and their warm hospitality tommorrow morning is going to be especially difficult.