BB2BB Day 5

I moved some of my stuff from my backpack to my saddlebag to reduce the weight on my back.

Managed to get going at 05:03. As the Tzaneen/Ohrigstad leg was a late change of plan, I had no track on my Garmin, but it was straight forward to get onto the R36 and head to Ohrigstad. The first 30 km was quite hairy with very little shoulder and lots of traffic, which included a fair number of taxi's. At one point there was a slip road to the left and I was past the entrance when I suddenly notice a wing mirror out of the corner of my eye. I veered left and shouted and fortunately the taxi also slowed down snd let me past, but it was a close shave!

After the rural area, the condition of the road improved snd there also was a wide clear piece of the left with short grass. This was bumpy but ridable so I pull whenever I heard a vehicle approaching.

Just after 08:00 I stopped to phone Johan de Bruyn at Garmin, who was instructed to issue an invoice. He requested a delivery address and promised the invoice in 5 minutes. I caught with Tim van Coller just after 09:15 and used the opportunity to check my email. The invoice was there and I managed to process the payment.

I was under the impression that Tim lived in the area and was riding from home. It transpired that Tim near Nelspruit and left home 3 days ago to with me for 3 days. Now that is what I call commitment. He will be with us up to Kaapsehoop and will ho back to Nelspruit when we head out to Badplaas. He left Graskop at 03:00 the morning and went over the Abel Erasmus Pass to join up with me and we had to over the Pass again on our way to Ohrigstad.

We had a nice leisurely ride up the the Hoedspruit/Lydenburg T-junction where we stopped for a Coke. Next was the Abel Erasmus Pass, a climb of more than 1,400 meters in 18 kilometers. This took us about 2 hours. Down the other side the road was fairly flat with some " irritating" undulations, especially after a long day with lots of climbing.

When we were about 5 km from Ohrigstad, Hennie phoned and said he is 20 km away and we must meet him at the Oasis Cafe. Our only "minor" problem was that the Oasis Cafe was 3 km past where we were staying fir the night!  We met Hennie there and after some cool drinks cycled back to our hosts for the night.

I did 147.29 km in 9:47:49 with 1,456 meters of climbing, most of which done in the 2 hours it took to get over the Abel Erasmus Pass.