We must have eaten something funny because Chris and I were prairie dogging all day the whole way to Underberg. It was quite hilarious actually dispite our discomfort. It was a mountainous day to be sure so it was a scream to watch us attack the hills in the hope of finding a bush higher than a grasshopper, dive off the bike throwing backpacks & clothes off in the run before diving behind a tree or bush or ducking down in the veld grass. Bibshorts are great until you need to pooh in a hurry. Chris had the loo roll which we fortuitously lifted earlier that morning from the ablutions and we got the very pained "Pass the boggroll" down to a fine art.
Of course we ended up getting quite dehydrayted and drinking and eating anything just made things worse. So we resigned ourselves to having a crappy day out on the course. We essentially followed the district road out from Kamberg towards Underberg. The views are awesome being in the middle of the berg and teh mountains are seriously high. The ascents were especially interesting when you're already cramping and it's almost impossible to clench your butt and climb 4km's up the side of a mountain ! The descents were an adrenaline rush of note (one was 12km's long - yeeeehaaa) what with the crazy speeds as we bombed down the mountain and trying to clench at the same time. In fact the more scarred you made yourself going down the mountain the better because you naturally clench harder !!!
At the second water stop (70km's) Chris and I had to stop for a long time because we couldn't eat and hydrate properly along the way and so felt seriously faint. We found some immodium which in the end didn't seem to do much good. We would no sooner pass a whole wack of mid fielders then would have to dive for the nearest rock or outcrop if we were lucky only to pass the bewildered bunch a few km's on again. Jokes abounded - natuarally. I would hear Chris encouraging the field to just keep going with a "nothing to see here folks" !
The scenary was amazing today. We cycled through a very picturesque part of the berg and the area abounds with fantastic trout dams and streams. There are some fantastic homesteads in the area and are generally available for weekends.
We eventually made it into Underberg at 2pm, 7 hrs after starting. No doubt our race position is blown to hell - we spent the better part of 90 mins prairie dogging today ! We've both gone and gotten vitamin B shots from the medics and now our butts are properly sore. It won't cure our afflictions but will help with our run down immune systems.
