Maandag 23 Junie 2014

RASA Day 11

RASA Day11
We managed to get going at 06:20. The previous evening the host showed us the track over his farm to link up with the district road. That was a great help. Like usual it was pretty cold and we did see -9.5 on thermometer. We checked our distances carefully, but did managed to miss a crucial turnoff after about 15 km. George said he did notice it, but ignored it because the distance was incorrect. Fortunately we had lots of people praying for us and the Lord sent an Angle in the form of Erhart from one of the local farms, to stop us and redirect us. Due to his diligence we were back on track without loosing any time. Once we linked up with the correct route, we started with the climb up Aasvoëlberg.
It took us 4:24 from leaving Romansfontein until we reached the farm road on the otherside. During this time we covered 30.47 km and ascended 641 meters and descended 930 meters. The ride from Romansfontein to the beginning of Aasvoëlberg was about 13 km which took us 45 minutes. The rest was spent on Aasvoëlberg. The descend, which down the route used for the annual 100 mile horse race, was something else. It was very rough and very steep, but we did managed to ride most of it.

We then joined the Tarkastad/Hofmeyr main road, and what a road. In some places it looked like a farm track! The other nasty bit about it was that the first 11 km was uphill. The incline was not much, but the constant grinding was energy sapping. Once over the top the road was more "reasonable" and we rolled into Hofmeyr at 13:45. We had some of Hofmeyr's legendary  pies and coffee. The "roosterkoek", which came with the pies was the best!

The 24 km was easy riding, but then we started the Elandsberg portage. The "road" was an old disused wagon trail, which later totally disappeared and was replaced by "hike a bike" through the veld, which eventually linked up with an obscure and faint jeep track. Our navigation did not let is down and we rolled into Elandsberg at 18:15.

Total riding time 11:52:58; total distance 115,96 km; total ascent 1,442 meters; total descent 1,895 meters.

1 opmerking:

  1. Philip thanks for a super blog. Seems you follow a good strategy. Keep going. Ilette Strydom

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