Freedom Challenge day 10

FCRASA day 10

Today we crossed ghe halfway point in my plan to do the race in 19.5 days. In distance that will only happen tomorrow. 

The rain down in buckets last night, but our host Will Terblache asured us that it will be clear in the morning. When we left at 05:15, we were greeted by clear skies. There is a shortcut through the farm to the district road, but we felt it may be too muddy and went for the traditional exit. Out of the farm we turned right and after 2.1 km right again. We now had 9.5 km to the turnoff to the farm Gunsteling, which would take us to Aasvoëlberg. I am niw sure what the problem was, but the navigators in our team suddenly went on a blinck! Johan R said we were travelling in the wrong direction and then discovered he had his map upside down. After awhile we stopped again because the navigators were not sure we were where we should be. Three of ys carried on as we were sure we were on the right road and only gad to turn off after we covered 9.5 km since the previous reference point. After quite a while we saw that the rest were following us. Before we reached the actusl turn off, there were more uncertainty, but in the end sanity prevailed and we all got the correct turnoff. A ride down the farm track got us to the entry point of the Aasvoëlberg portage. The track up the mountain was ridable, but once eaagainenc we  had the problem that some were just too steep. At one point we had to leeve the track, climb over a fence and proceed through the veld to another fence, which we had to climb over and then find the track down the mountain. This track used to be very rough, but to our surprise we found that it has been graded! It was still very rough, but we could ride all the way to the bottom. There we joined the Tarkastad/Hofmeyr road. The next 11.5 km was all uphill and straight into the teeth of a very strong North Westerly wind. For thd next hour and forty five minutes we had to grind up the hill into this wind! It was soul distroying, but once we reached the top wd were rewarded with the most beautiful sight and the prospect of a wonderful downhill. Just to make it more satisfying, we found that the wind was mostly on our backs. We now had a very pleasant ride of  35 km into Hofmeyr and to crown it all the road surface was mostly silky smooth. We arrived in Hofmeyr at about 12:30, stopping at Karoobis for lunch. 

We got going again at13:20 and headed out to Elandsberg. 5.4 km on the Cradock road was followed by 21 km on a good district road and farm tracks until we got to track leading to Elandsberg. This track was rough, but ridable with the odd section or two which was just too steep. We followed this to a point where we had to clear a fence again, make our way through the veld to pick up the track which would take us over the neck and onto the track down to the farm Elandsberg, where arrived at 16:10, a relatively short day.