A beautiful morning greeted us in Oudtshoorn with a morning temperature of 20 degrees. No need for arm warmers or leggings. Darrell had to remedy an, ummm open sore on his butt and I had my knee taped to help the patella track proper. Then we were off.
To sum up the day it was across up/down/across/up/down etc and then across. It was into the desert with so much dust being kicked up my glasses were coated. It was humorous to watch everyone drive blind on the trail and then up having a yard sale when they hit the sand. We rode thru the Karaboo Game reserve but alas saw no lions or tigers or bears, Oh My. I did see a whole donkey train with them making all their ass noises. There were small asses and big asses and unfortunately rather foul smelling asses as well.
It is now certified and official most people in SA cannot ride up hill. The mule train started again on the first climb and we did Canada proud by only having to walk 400m all day. It must be mental because as soon they get back on the road they are gone!!
The route took us to the top of a mountain with a near 360 degree view.
We had near 20kms of downhill after with half being swoopy fast double track. Then it kicked us onto a road were the trains formed up and the pace was high all the way to Water station #2.
After that it was up again for some challenging and rewarding climbs. Challenging meaning friggin hard and on rewarding meaning thank the bike gods that is over.
There is nothing quite like hitting a 7km/1200 foot uphill on black pavement in the middle of a valley in 36 degree weather. The sound of your water bottle boiling whistling like a kettle is not encouraging.
Still working on how to stay full of fuel when riding for over 7 hours. Fed Darrell full of bars, coke, gels, and espresso hammer gel. That put the snap back into him.
We traveled thru orchards today in the last stretch. The countryside is stunning with the mountains behind the orchards rising thousands of feet to frame a beautiful picture.
Here is a sampling of what I ate in the last couple of hours. I like sugar, I really, really like sugar.
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