Day 7: Freshly Frozen & On to Slaapkrantz

I think I found out where Woolworths buys their frozen produce from - It must be from around here. It was so cold this morning the fields were snow white & even the sheep still had white frost on their backs @ 8am ! My shoes are covered in frost from the grass too.

Myself, Sean, Erol & Estelle left Rhodes this morning @ 4am after only 4 hours of sleep so we could get to our afternoon mountain traverse with enough daylight to spare. No sense in sleeping on the moubtain now is there. Todays total distance was 108km. It was a sub zero morning - My drinking water tubes froze up, my shoes had ice on them & all the water pools alongside the road were frozen solid !

After the glorious warm days heading to Rhodes today was a severe shock to the system. I'm glad I didn't unpack my winter kit to save weight. I had more layers on than an Egyptian mummy today.

We got to Cheseny Wold around lunchtime and were warmly greeted with offers of food, glorious food. We were treated to home made crumpets & jam, muffins & a delicous breakfast @ Cheseny World Farm by Minki before heading on to Slaapkrantz.

The weather turned nasty over the Drakensberg this afternoon & we ended up donning our rain gear. Worse than that was having to pedal hard downhill to avoid being blown to a dead stop by the bitingly cold headwind that was howling straight at us.

Our portage today was up & over another mountain with a steep rocky decent to our destination in the valley 8km below. We went down on the left along a sheep track to pick up an old jeep track to get to the farm Slaapkrantz owned by Andre & Joyce far below.

A fair bit of bike carrying was required & I must confess that I've been in the wars lately with injuries. After climbing Lehanna's Pass my left knee is agonisingly sore today and my left shin is still swollen from my previous falls.
Well guess what - whilst carrying the bike down the mountainside a strong gust of wind blew me completely off balance on a particularly loose rocky section & I fell down the embankment. I tried to save the bike from damage by planting my head & shoulder on the rocks to break my fall & ended up dislocating a finger in the process ! I only realised this after my vision cleared & I tried to pick the bike up again.

I couldn't get the glove off because of the perculiar angle of the finger & I figured a broken finger should be hurting a whole lot more so I pulled the finger straight & it popped/cracked back into place. It was a relief because we were stuck up the side of a mountain 8km's from the nearest farm & what could I do ?

So now I can't ride properly because my left knee hurts badly with pedal pressure, I can't walk properly because my left shin is still swollen & sore & I can't grip the handlebars too good because my finger is bruised & a bit swollen from the dislocation & relocation !!!

Despite all this it was a stunning portage over the berg. 'Annie Jane' you would have gone gagga over the steep 6km jeep track decent !
In elk geval mense, ek is vrek moeg so ek gaan nou slaap...

Day 6: Lehanna !!! & Rhodes

I'm tired & just a little stiff - It was a short day, time & distance wise. We started @ 06:00am from Vuvu & got to the foot of the infamous Lehanna's Pass portage @ first light. It's a 4/5 km hike up & over the mountain behind the Naude's Nek Pass.

We were headed for the left edge of the flat topped portion in the centre of the main photograph. That point is approximately 1km above the point from where the picture was taken !!!

No words can adequately describe the exhausting, hair raising scramble up the side of a very high & sheer Drakensberg mountain carrying a backpack & a bike. The vertical ascent is 1 km over 4km.

The vista's are absolutely incredible. It took me just on 4 hrs to get to the top of the pass. We then headed down to Tenahead lodge for a cuppa before riding the last 30km's to Rhodes. And just for fun there's a 6/8 km climb along the way.

Anyway we got to Rhodes @ 14:00pm, had a quick lunch before cleaning the bikes, doing some maintenance, washing & repacking clothes into the backpack.

We're leaving Rhodes @ 04:00am for our sub zero 108km next stage. Yesterdays guys water froze in their waterbottles enroute ! I'm really knackered so I'm going to sleep now...

Day 5: In Gods Country - To Vuvu

Another long day today, but certainly one with the most dramatic scenery. We are truly riding in Gods country today. We left in the dark at around 05:30am in heavy mist & traveled along a mountain ridge & eventually joined a district road.

We left the road after climbing a few km's to do the Black Fountain route. First down a mountain to cross a river & then up & around a few more ridges on the other side. These are 'Drakensberg' type mountains, so they are monsterous. We traversed the top & then headed down to the Tinana Mission on the other side - about 20km's of stunning mountain riding ! We were up at about 1700m for most of it.

The last single track of the day took a long time with lots of navigation challenges. We again headed off the road into the mountains along cattle paths crossing 2 rivers several times for about 13km's whilst heading up a network of valleys.

It was tough going because in places the thatching grass was several feet tall or we had to cross semi plowed rural mielie fields next to the rivers.

Anyway it got dark when we were still several km's & right at the bottom of the river valley from Vuvu village where we're stayng tonight.

We climbed up a cliff to get a road that would take us to a cell mast right at the top of the mountain. It took us about 2 hours to get from the river where it got dark to the top and we got into Vuvu @ around 19:30pm.

It was a fantastic day of riding and tonight we are being put up by the villagers of Vuvu. Elainne has given up her accommodation so Sean & I have somewhere to sleep. As I said yesterday 'Mama Africa' will look after me...