Oefenrit 6 September 2010

The Freedom Challenge is about covering great distances over a prolonged period. As preparation for this I decided to spend a day on the bicycle once a month until June 2011. My first trip was on Monday 6 September. The aim was to do 160km. Errol Derricke, who has done 3 Freedom Challenges agreed to join me for part of the way. We agreed to meet at Zevenwacht at 09:00. That meant I had to leave Blouberg at about 06:00. I did managed to get away at 06:18. My planned route was through the bushes north of Parklands via Hillcrest, Nitida, Majik Forest, Kenridge, Oakdale, Protea Hoogte and Kuilsriver Gholf Club to Zevenwacht. Despit a "small" flip over the bars when I came down a hill at Nitida, I made Zevenwacht by 09:10. We then proceeded over Zevenwacht hills behind Stellenbosch Kloof, over Papagaaisberg, behind Coetzenberg to the entrance to Lanzerac in Stellenbosch. As the South Easter was picking up and Errol did 130
Km on Sunday, he decided to head home. I then proceeded up Bothmaskop, down Helshoogte, over the hills to Rustenburg. Unfortunately I could not get permission to cross the farm and had to revert to the tar road to Klapmuts. From there down the gravel road to Fisantekraal via Spes Bona and Fairview to Bloubergstrand, arriving home after 170 km and 13 hours in the saddle.