I am halfway through my chemo treatment and will know early next week what the next 12 weeks will look like. That brings us to December, then it will be time to get this old body into serious shape again.
In the mean time it is a good idea to diarise some dates for two very nice mountain bike trips. For both of these you will only need 4 days leave. The plan is to have support vehicles meet us from time to time so we can ride light. Both will include luxury catered accommodation as well as the odd night of camping / self catering. For both trips you will need a good level of fitness, but there are always the option to ride the more scenic section on your bike and then jump on the support vehicle for the rest. The idea is to enjoy the trip, not break yourself.
The first trip/tour:
I call it the Freedom Trail Lite Tour and will basically be the first four day of the Freedom Challenge to be toured over 7 days. Distances will be in the order of 50-60km per day with limited hike-a-bike sections. The preliminary dates:
| 31-Mar-12 | Drive to PMB | |
| 01-Apr-12 | PMB - Byrne | 52km |
| 02-Apr-12 | Byrne - Allandale | 52km |
| 03-Apr-12 | Allandale - Centacow | 48km |
| 04-Apr-12 | Centacow - Ntsikeni | 55km |
| 05-Apr-12 | Ntsikeni - Banchory | 36km |
| 06-Apr-12 | Banchory - Masakala | 57km |
| 07-Apr-12 | Masakala - Malekholonyane | 55km |
| 08-Apr-12 | Drive Home | |
| 09-Apr-12 | Unpack, chill, normalise |
The second trip/tour:
This will be a Venda Land Tour. This will again be the first four days of the Beit2Cape trail toured over 8 days. There will also be easier and tougher bits in each day, so expect to push your bike a little bit. But that is OK. Part of mountain biking. But I will try and keep it to a minimum.
| 27-Apr-12 | Drive to Musina | |
| 28-Apr-12 | Beit - Tsipise | 87km |
| 29-Apr-12 | Tsipise - Mangwele | 48km |
| 30-Apr-12 | Mangwele - Kliphuis | 48km |
| 01-May-12 | Kliphuis - Madyisa | 48km |
| 02-May-12 | Madyisa - Blue Hills | 73km |
| 03-May-12 | Blue Hills - Haenertsburg | 55km |
| 04-May-12 | Haenertsburg - Wolkberg | 46km |
| 05-May-12 | Wolkberg - Makhutsi | 66km |
| 06-May-12 | Back Home |
So now it is time to start planning, training, dreaming and drooling...
Hi
ReplyDeleteWas researching amongst others your site and interested in the routes followed from Johannesburg to Cape Town.
I am originally from Cape Town and have an interesting prospect to demonstrate and ride a new Swiss design electric pedal-assist bike from Johannesburg the Cape Town next month.
No sure if bicycles are allowed on the N1 and if not what route did you follow?
Farrell Segall
Vancouver BC
Farrell
ReplyDeleteI have sent you an email to your gmail address