BB2BB Day 9

We forgot to plan for breakfast and the resort only started serving breakfast at 07:00 so I had to settle for a biltong breakfast.

We got going just before 06:00 as today was going to be an easy day. We were going to follow a track which Hennie have ridden twice before. Ww were riding on a good district road to Chrissiesmeer. We were going up a gentle incline. After about 5 km we reach a good farm road down which Hennie took us. Initially the going was good, as we progressed it became tougher. Eventually the track disappeared and we had to push our bikes through the longish grass. Hennie had a general idea of where we were heading. After going on like this for about an hour, we found a the track again could spend sone time riding. Hennie pointed out a house on the other side of the valley and said we were heading there. Unfortunately the farmer, Piet Steenkamp, was away for the weekend so there was no possibility of coffee!

When we got to the farm eventually, there were two guts working with the cattle. It turned out Pier got his dates wrong. We had our coffee and during the discussion it transpired that the track Hennie wanted to take was in a very bad state. We therefore decided to use the road which they now use to link up with the main road. This was on the other side of the valley. The first kilometer of riding went OK, but then the road went up and up and up and up! We pushed our bikes up this hill for the next two hours! By the time my odometer indicated 30 km, we were traveling for 5 hours. An average speed of 6 kph!

In the meantime I was having problems with my saddlebag. We could not get it high enough and whenever I went through a dip, my rear wheel would touch it. Eventually Hennie suggested that we remove it and that he will tie it to his back pack while I tied his shoes to mine. From there on the riding went much smoother.

We reached the N17 after 5:50 and a distance of 36 km. Once on the tar road, our going was much better and were averaging 19 kph. We stopped for a Coke and after 17 km turned off on a farm road, which led us to some forestry road and then no road again. We followed some ridable cattle track and then picked up a very nice track through a blue gum plantation. At the end of the plantation we took a short cut through some short grass and picked up a farm road which took us through to a district road, down which I will start my journey tomorrow. We now could see our destination, but still had to cycle 4 km until we reached the farm Edenvale, where we would spend the night with Stryker and Bellie Celliers.

We did 72.5 km in 8:36 while we ascended  1,295 meters