Touring with The Pretty One - Day 4

Bo-Kloof to Willowmore.

It was just gettin light enough to see when the Tandem and it's 2 engines took off and headed for Willowmore. It was to be our longest day of the four days in the Kloof and we wanted to beat some of the Karoo heat. Just before we got to Nuwekloofpas we stopped at a house by the roadside and were treated to roosterkoek with butter, fig jam and cheese. (Roosterkoek is a bread type dough that is baked over an open fire.) An absolute treat.

After this the engines had enough fuel to make light work of Nuwekloofpas and at the top this pass promptly deposits you in the dry and arid Karoo. After the support team refueld us again we were on our way to Willowmore where the group spent the night in luxury at the Willowmore Historical Guest House. We were treated like royalty.

Early morning departure from Bo-Kloof

Anton, Steve, The Pretty One, Myself and Gerrit enjoying roosterkoek

Anette, Froncois, Cornia and Pieter enjoying their roosterkoek.

Elaine obviously happy to be at Vero's for her roosterkoek

Gerrit at the start of Nuwekloofpas

The beauty of Nuwekloof

Some more beauty

On top of  Nuwekloof

The group having a kuier on the lawns of Willowmore Historical Guest House

The Pub...

Gavin and Bridget with their sons and supporter, Dave - Supper.

Touring with The Pretty One - Day 3

Rooihoek to Bo-Kloof

"Bo-Kloof" is Afrikaans for Upper Valley. And it is indeed quite a bit "upstream" that we cycled. There was quite a mean pass to cycle over and then the rest of the day's cycling was gently uphill. It made for another longish but hot day in the office. Not that anybody was complaining. The scenery was just so beautiful that one could not help but stop often and just be in awe.

Another feature of this day was that we started to cross smaller streams and these were quickly named "road jacuzzi". Me and The Pretty One was still doing great on the Tandem and she was taking many pictures with my new Nokia phone. On this particular day I had a cycling shirt on with back pockets and she started putting my phone into my shirt pocket in stead of my backpack. At on of these roadside dips I diligently took my backpack off and took a deep long cool down in the jacuzzi. When she wanted to take another photo some time later we both realized with a shock what happened. All I can say is that Nokia phones cannot swim. They drown and die...

Once everybody was settled at Bo-Kloof we had a late afternoon rain shower, but the evening turned out beautiful and we had a well earned rest.

The pass

The pass

Finding and fixing a slow leak on the Tandem

A Donkey Cart

Local inhabitants

A Road Jacuzzi being enjoyed by Steve

One of the water crossings

And another water crossing

The Kloof is really beautiful

Then it rained

Honeymoon Suite

Touring with The Pretty One - Day 2

Heron Cliff to Rooihoek

The tandem and Steve started as the day was about to break in the East and the moon was slowly dipping in the West. We wanted to get some riding during the cooler hours done, and towards the end of the day we surely were glad we were not cycling all the way in the heat of the day. The group got going, each at his own time as there is only one route through the kloof. The day turned into a scorcher and the added problem was that once we had the big climb behind us and were refreshed by the supporters on top of Bergplaas, we never saw them again after a few hours had passed and we were well rested and had a nice snooze at the Rooihoek Camping Site. Once these mountain bikes (and especially the tandem) get hold of a descent downhill, the support vehicles fall so far behind that it takes them ages to catch up again. We zipped down the descent after Bergplaas in a few minutes, and the support train took nearly 2 hours to get down.

But we were rewarded with a lovely spot to camp and everybody enjoyed the flood water from the Karoo that flowed right past our camp. We had a sleep, a swim, a chortel and a lovely braai. Most of us slept under the stars and our sleep was only disturbed by the baboons that was frightened by something (leopard?) in the middle of the night.

I (actually my daughter Liezl, driving my Pajero) was having some issues with the bike rack being hammerd by the rough roads in the Kloof, and it later turned out that a few of the other trailers were also having issues with the tough test that the Baviaans Kloof presented. But since we were a lot of Boere together, we made a plan or three. (Afrikaans proverb)

A very pretty part of the Kloof

And another pretty part of the kloof

With some awesome climbs...

And then we rested (half of these were supporters...)

Half of them were supporters too - hard work supporting...

Aaahh... The swim...

Camp taking shape

Touring with The Pretty One - Day 1

Jeffries Bay to Heron Cliff

When we woke everything was very wet from the dew but that is the support team's problem... not really. We bundled the wet stuff into the trailers and pretty soon everybody was on their way. We had to traverse some private land with SERIOUS orders about closed gates, so the group stayed together until we exited the farm roads and started entering the Baviaans Kloof. What a beautiful decent into the kloof. I have always ridden this part in the night as part of the Trans Baviaans 24hr race, and I never realized how beautiful it is. Pretty soon it was chill time at Heron Cliff. We had to move camp slightly as the original camping site was washed away in a flood days before. It did not rain in the kloof, but the water came from far and there it rained a lot. As recently as December Beaufort West had serious problems as their dam dried up completely, and when we went through there on our way the dam was overflowing. Same rains fed the rivers that eventually becomes the Groot River and flows through the Baviaans Kloof.

The tandem did well and I enjoyed the day out with The Pretty One.

Ready to go

Me and The Pretty One and the Tandem

Support ready with all the treats a tired cyclist want

The group chatting with one of the landowners - 81 years old and going strong

Chilling at Heron Cliff

Touring with The Pretty One - Day 0

We left the Dam just before sunrise and a spur of the moment decision made me ride over the dam wall instead of taking the main road. What a spectacle awaited us. The biggest dam in South Africa 100% full and overflowing. The rest of the trip was again without incident, butt the conditions of the roads in South Africa is shocking. The going was slower than expected but once in Jeffries Bay we pitched camp and spent some quality time on the beach and fixing the Beta version of a new bike rack that I designed and built. This was going to give us (actually the supporters) some interesting moments over the next few days.

The Gariep Dam bursting out of it's seams

The normally dry Karoo had a lot of rain in places

Setting up camp in Jeffries

Liezl and Sandy on the the beach at Jeffries

Touring with The Pretty One - Day -1

I had an early radiation session and soon we were packed and ready to go. The Pajero, trailer with 5 bikes, Myself, The Pretty One, Roelof, Sandra, Liezl and Steve. We had an uneventful journey and slept at Gariep Dam on the border of the Free State and Eastern Cape. Mmm... Liezl forgot her mobile phone in a restroom along the way, and in South Africa that is as good as throwing it in a dustbin or the sea. The first person to find it will steal it, period.

Picking up Steve and away we were

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Swaziland and 30 Years

Me and The Pretty One got married on the 28th February 1981. So we celebrated 30 years of happiness this past weekend. Part of this was my promise that I will cycle through the Baviaans Kloof with her. But this weekend was just for the two of us, so we packed the Pajero, left the bicycles at home and set off for Swaziland. The idea was to follow the route that I plan to ride in June during my Beit Bridge to Cape Town Cycle.

We had a lot of fun, saw some amazing parts of Swaziland off the beaten track, and at times tested the offroad capabilities of the Pajero.

Some Pictures:

Had to wait a while for the timber to be cleared - coffee break

Off the beaten track 1

Off the beaten track 2

Small Pajero

End of the road 1 - Only mountain bikes from here forward.

End of the road 2 - I will have to use the new bridge - Tar, hugh

Pretty

Prettier

Prettiest

Scouting a footpath

Disused railway line - knee-deep

End of the road 3 - Only mountain bikes

Coffee break - NO DRINKING and DRIVING - you spill to much

Yet another removable obstacle

Pretty

End of the road 4 - Mountain Bikes only

Pretty