BB2BB Day 15

Gavin Ryan really went out of his way to assist me and get my bicycle sorted out. I am very thankful towards him and his for all the did for me. The salt of the earth!

We had to get up earlier than usual because it was about an half hours drive to the point where I finished yesterday. There were five other cyclists who were joining me for the first 22 km. We go going at 05:45. I was riding in the front. After a while I looked behind me and there was only one guy! Apparently the pace was a little too hot for the others. We slowed our pace, but they did not appear, so we continued at our normal pace. Meanwhile Gavin jumping ahead every now and then to stop and take photos and offer us some coffee. He and Wade stayed with me up to the end of the tar road which was after 28 km.

Up to this I have already done a fair amount of climbing, but now the climbing really started. The up hills of 6-8 km was followed by similar downhills and was followed by an up hill again. It was never ending! The scenery was out of this world! The road condition varied from fair to poor to excellent. Once I got closer to Himeville I thought that the riding would get easier. I was in for a surprise. All the hills had false tops! When I got to what I thought was the top, it just carried on and at the next "top" the same thing happened. At one point I was getting dejected, because the end just would nit come!

I finally reach Himeville after about 8 hours riding and stopped at the bottle store for a Coke. That went down well! I completed the 5 km to Underberg and arrived at the front door of my hosts after 8:34 only to find nobody home! They went out to meet me but we seems to have missed one one another when I bought my Coke. I hosed my bike down, oil the gears and chain and went for a shower. Tomorrow is another day

I used both Garmin's today. The new one did the navigation and the old one I had on detail of time, distance, speed, average speed, temperature, and ascent as the navigation on this unit did work! So the new one came just in time.

Total time 8:34:16; distance 98.0 km; climbed 1,891 meters.