Steve's log, Day 1 to Day 6

Day 1

Our first day of riding started on the coast at Hamburg, which is a village at the mouth of the Keiskamma river. Here the Keiskamma Trust, a sister organization of Kidzpositive, supports a number of arts and other local development projects, many of which are coordinated by Dr Carol Baker-Hofmeyr. We visited a few of these projects, and were impressed by the initiatives and beautiful artwork that is being produced. The next morning we were given a raucous send-off by the village, complete with singing, dancing, sweeping the road clear ahead of us (symbolically with brooms!), and photos. A number of local boys joined us on their bicycles as we wound our way out of the village next to the Keiskamma river lagoon and up the hill away from the sea past the village of Bodiam. 17km later we got back into the vehicle and drove back through Port Elizabeth to pick up the Freedom Challenge route near Middelwater farm in the Elands River valley.

Quote of the day: Klim oor my f****** draad, dan k** jy! (sign by the side of the road)

We set off in the early afternoon near a farm called Middelwater and climbed up a steep pass to find magnificent views over the Patensie area all the way down to the sea. Here the party split, with Debbie and Paul going down the road towards Patensie while Hoffie and Steve took the Osseberg jeep track down the mountain. The latter two had numerous adventures down this steep little used track, including fording the Groot Rivier 11 times as daylight faded and night fell, getting lost in the forest and running out of battery for the (single) headlight. They eventually arrived elated but exhausted at the overnight accommodation (Kudu Kaya) in the dark at 8pm, only an hour after the former two. We all ate heartily and slept soundly.

Hoffie won the Zog for dropping his cellphone down the toilet, but taking his cycling gloves off before retrieving it. Such priorities.

Dave Waddilove’s mother was there organizing the team of local women to cater for the groups of cyclists who come through, and it was good to meet her in the morning. After waiting for our back-up team of Stephanus (Hoffie’s son) and Elize to arrive from Port Elizabeth, we set off later than we had expected on a long day through the Baviaanskloof. This was an extreme day of mountain passes, one after the other, through steep-sided gorges over a total of 1320m of climbing up the most amazing roads leading to spectacular views. The Baviaanskloof is a large protected area of indigenous bush, a so-called “mega-reserve”, and there were plenty of holiday makers in their 4-wheel drives, as this was the first day of the Easter weekend. After emerging from the mountain passes we cycled the last flat 15km to Studtis in the dark, arriving at around 7pm by headlight after an exhausting 83km for the day. Here we were warmly greeted by Hestelle van Rensberg of the farm Damsedrif, who fed us a delicious meal, washed our clothes and told us stories of other cyclists that made us laugh.

Quote of the day: “Hulle vreet soos honde” (Hestelle talking about the Freedom Challenge riders)

After a full breakfast we got going relatively early along the valley in a westerly direction, climbing slowly but steadily, and threaded our way eventually through the narrow Nuwe Kloof. After lunch in the kloof we climbed up onto the plateau of the real Karoo. A flat straight stretch against the wind took us to the N8 and into Willowmore, where we were stayed over at the Willows Historical Hotel having done 85km in total for the day. The history largely seemed to relate to the glorious days of apartheid, but we ate and rested well.

Quote of the day: Die man wat ‘n harde fiets ry is yster! (referring to Paul, without shocks)

Day 4 was our first experience of the real Karoo off the tar road, complete with corrugations, loose sand and a challenging headwind. It was also our longest day in terms of distance, covering almost 100km from Willowmore to just north of Klaarstroom. We arrived at the farm Rondavel in the afternoon and were greeted by Chris Marincowitz, who turned out to the cousin of a medical colleague of Hoffie and Steve’s by the name of Gert Marincowitz. Chris is about 6 foot 6 inches tall, wonderfully hospitable and friendly, and his son Gerrit is even taller but more reticent. They were somewhat challenged in hosting us as Chris’ wife was away in the Cape, but rose to the occasion magnificently with an enormous braai and koeksisters for desert. Rondavel is a typical old Karoo farm, seemingly isolated in the middle of a vast plain of low scrub, and still using a single cylinder Lister engine generator for electricity (lights out at 10pm then candles).

Quote of the day: “Stay away from me!” (Paul to Debbie after the second crash)

After leaving Rondavel, we found Chris Marincowitz out along the road waiting for us to say good bye. What a nice man (apparently all the ladies of the Karoo think so too!).

The fifth day consisted of three main factors that made it more challenging than we had anticipated:

1.     A constant significant headwind

2.     Soft sandy roads, like beachsand

3.     Corrugations in the sand

When to these three was added the slightest gradient, it became difficult to maintain a forward momentum at all at times, leading to sudden radical lateral movements in the sand. Debbie’s knee pain from the previous fall got worse, and she had to stop 10km from Prince Albert. We arrived in the afternoon in this pretty town, and put up at Dennehof guest house, where we were very graciously hosted by Ria. She cooked us the most delicious meal of the trip, and we felt truly pampered that night.

Quote of the day: “Aan die eensamheid is ek al gewoond” (Gerrit, as we left Rondavel)

Day six was entirely different, starting with an enormously strenuous climb up the spectacular Prince Albert pass, 1000 vertical metres on a dirt road designed by Thomas Baines. The weather had changed and it was freezing cold and windy on top. Paul had the first puncture of the trip and by the time we got going again we were all very cold. Then followed another 32km of steep ascents and descents across the top of the mountain complete with headwind and some rain, to the top of a major descent, from which we got a beautiful view of the Gamkaskloof valley. The 5km descent into the valley was exhilarating, down an incredible zigzag pass. Until 1962 this valley was only accessible by donkey path, having been settled originally in 1830 by a small number of reclusive families. Apparently it was named Hell by a cattle inspector in the 1940’s who visited monthly, and said when he returned that he had “gone to hell and back”. A small community of mainly Marais’ lived here, including a small school which was closed as recently as 1980. Being in the valley is like stepping back in time to a previous era. We stayed in Sankie Marais’ house, a very simple abode which has been nicely restored, as have all the other historic houses in the valley. They are now run by Cape Nature and can be rented by holiday makers, of which there were many who passed us on the road in 4 wheel drives and some motor bikes.

Quote of the day: “It would have been better with shocks” (Paul, immediately after descending the 1000m pass into the Gamkaskloof, where this admission was shaken out of him).