BB2BB2 Day 15

 

What a day! But let us just go back to last night. The "Britsh" guests were South Africans form Durban/Kloof, who are preparing to bring two Britsh tourist out to South Africa for some shooting, which they cannot do in UK, and show them the battlefields around Kwazulu-Natal. There were supposed to 6 but the other 4 got cold feet because SA is too dangerous!

I had a good sleep and Philip brought me a breakfast pack. When I wanted to pay for the accommodation and meals, he said that it is his contribution to my CANSA fund. Dieter Muhl did the same the previous day!

I remember from last time that the climb out of Elandsview is long and steep. Good preparation for what was too come! The 8 km took me 1:05. I was really climbing well and enjoyed the "warmup"! Gradient was around 8% with one or two sections going up to 15%. Once on top I was "blessed" with beautiful pink and white flowers growing next to the road. 

A little further along the road, I took a left on the R33, losing a lot of height immediately and then right onto an old tar road. This led me to a left on a gravel road. I checked with my Komoot track, which I downloaded the previous night and saw that according to that I had to turn earlier. I did not notice the road Komoot referred to, but as the two tracks was running parallel, I continued on the Garmin route. After about 30 km the Garmin track wanted to take me right. I looked at Komoot and saw that their was a track from this point, which would take me back to the Komoot track. 

I am not sure what the Garmin track was like, but from here up to about 80 km, when the two tracks converged again, I rode through some of the most beautiful country side I have seen in a very long time. The "connecting track" took me down a very steep mountain and at the bottom I joined the Komoot track. I was now on a valley with high cliffs on eirher side as the road meanered though the mountains. On top of a hill I stopped to have the other bacon and cheese burger as well as the Coke Philip gave me. A little while later, I came to a T-junction. When I look at Komoot, saw that I lost the track somewhere. Fortunately I could get back on track by turning right and was on course again. 

The Komoot profile showed a rather big hill and I was approaching that hill. At this point the Garmin and Komoot tracks converged again for a short while. About 2 km up the hill there was a road turning off to the right while the road I was on was going straight. There was a roadsign indicating the straight goes to Ladismith with no indication where right goes to! Garmin wanted to go right and as that was away from my general ditection, I stuck with Komoot. This big hill had a "step" in it. First it went up, then a little level part and then up again. The first "step" was brutal! 2.55 km and it took me 55 minutes. That is an average speed of 2.8 kph! I have never ridden up a hill that slowly. This time includes the three rest stops as well as a photo stop, so my moving speed was faster, but I was moving along at between 3-5 kph. The gradient was between 14 and 16% most of the time with some 17% and a small section at 9-12%. I was enjoying this climb and never felt the urge to stop and start pushing. Conquering a hill like this in your own strength gives enormeous satisfaction! The level section was 3.73 km and then the last step was 3.22 km, but fortunately not as steep as the first part. 

This was followed by a long downhill, some of which was tarred where I managed to reach 66.8 kph! Towards the end this route converged with Garmin again, meaning that the Garmin route went around the mountain I went over. I wonder which would take the longer to complete as the Garmin route is longer. My Garmin track for the day was 117 km against Komoot's 94 km. 

Now I had 27 km left to Weenen, which once again was quite undulating making it difficult to make good time. I reached Weenen after 10 hours 20 minutes. The Owl and Eliphant is just outside Weenen, so it took me another few minutes to get there.

I was the only guest and was treated to a lovely plate of beef and vegetable stew on rice. Tomorrow is only 81 km so I will have breakfast at 06:30 to leave at 07:00.