RASA Day 17

RASA Day 17
We left Kudu Khaya at 04:00. It was not too cold and we had a clear sky. Leon Kruger joined George and myself. We were onto Combrink Pass very quickly and the other two pulled away from me. I did not try and chase them and went up at my own pace. When I got to Boplaas I stopped and got my music out. If I ride on my own, I may just as well listen to music! Go down the other side was fairly slow in the dark because the road surface is not very good. The sun rose as I was about halfway up Holgat Pass.

George and Leon were waiting there for me and we had sandwiches and coffee. Leon had a small flask which he filled up before we left this morning. Going down in day light was much quicker and I passed both of them on the way down after I lost sone time sorting my music out after our stop. The rest of the way to Dam se Drif, our halfway stop, was much easier, but we still had to master some climbs and undulations. We pulled in at Dam se Drif at 11:00 after 7 hours in the saddle. Here we treated to an early lunch consisting of mince and pasta covered with cheese, pumpkin, potato salad, spicy backed beans, jot bread rolls and Hestelle's famous chocolate pudding and custard. She also gave each of us 4 snackwiches. We spent 50 at the "lunch" stop.

The road from here to Willowmore is not that difficult but generally heads up, so we were spending a lot of time cycle roads with an incline of 2-4%, which is tiring and difficult to maintain a good average speed. After about 50 km we entered the Nuwekloof, which ends with the Nuwekloof Pass. The actual kloof is something out of this world and after riding through the kloof with vertical cliffs on both sides, it ends with the final climb up the pass and the turnoff to Willowmore. From here we had 34 km left, which was better riding but still had a number of hills to over come. We made good time and came to our last obstacle for the day. We had to climb over a 3 meter high fence. George and myself arrived there first, just as we managed to get our bikes across, Leon arrived and Francois Otto, who over shot the turnoff and to come back, also arrived, so we helped them as well to get over. The last 5 km from there to the Willows was N easy ride and we arrived on Willowmore at 16:50.

Total distance: 157.76 km; total time: 12:50:57; total ascent: 2,770 meters; total descent: 2,132 meters.