Blouberg to Prince Albert

Left home at 07:25 and cycled to Cape Town to catch the train to Prince Albert Road. Got to the station at 09:00 and handed bike in for transport in the goods van. Shosaloza Meyl left on time at 10:00. Journey to Prince Albert Road was quite pleasant with two other guys in the compartment with me. They were both on their way to Johannesburg. One, a very healthy looking 80 year old was quite talkative and shared various stories from his life with us. We also discovered that we both were at Kings Park in 1961 when the All Blacks and Natal played and drew 11-11! Had a very generous Curry and Rice for lunch for R40! Initially the train was running about 8 minutes late, but by the time we got to Laingsburg, it was made up. We arrived at Prince Albert Road 10 minutes early. I got my bike from the goods van and set off to Prince Albert. I knew to road was fairly easy with no serious hills but a number of "ups and downs". After about 15 km it got dark, but there was very little traffic and my lights were working fine. At 20 km I could see lights in the distance and was looking forward to a nice downhill run into Prince Albert. Unfortunately this did not materialise as the last km is either flat or with a slight incline with the result that I only finally saw lights again when I had 1 to go. Dennehof also is right at the other end of town so it was quite a "drag" before I finally arrived there at 19:25. Supper was ready and after a few minutes Johnn Rissik arrived to join me for supper. We had a nice pleasant chat over the meal talking about the surroundings, access problems and the Freedom Challenge. We finished at 20:45 and I bid my farewells and went to my room. My first priority was to see if I could not lighten my pack. I took out some excess clothing, which Johann agreed to bring to Cape Town early June. I probably managed to save a kg or so, but realised that one of the big weight factors was the water in my pack. The easiest solution to that problem was to half empty it. As water along the way would not be an issue, I decided to follow that route. Well I have had my shower and now am ready for a good night's rest. I have a hard day in front of me tomorrow.