Allemanskraal na Marlu via Kamferpoort

 

Last night I decided to shorten the ride to Marlu by about 54 km. I will travel with Llise to Klipplaat with her bakkie. Form there she will head home and I will tackle the road to Marlu. 

We left Allemanskraal just before 08:00 and got to Klipplaat at 08:20. We said our goodbyes and I started cycling at 08:26. The first 15 km to the entrance of Kamferpoort is mostly downhill and I got there in just over an hour. At the entrance there is a road going left to Mount Stewart. I made a mental note that I can look at that road as an option for a future ride. 

Just after this junction I encountered the first gate. There are a number on this road. The road first swings to the right, then through a "spruit" and then left along the side of the mountain. Around the corner I encountered a locked gate. 

I knew about this gate and arranged with my brother-in-law to ensure I can get a key to open it. The instructions was quite clear: the key will be in the lock and I had to leave it under a stone on the south side of the gate after I locked it. No problem and I was on my way. 

Lower down the valley there is another gate and this always have open, but not today! I looked around for the possibility of a stone with a key under it, but there was none! I looked at the gate, which was 2 meters high and not only 1 meter like the previous one, and realised that the only option was to climb over and also hual my bike over it. So I first climbed over with my backpack and left that on the otherside. Now for getting my bike over! I hooked the bike as high as I could onto the fence next to the gate. I then climbed onto the fence and managed to get my bike across, with a fair amount of effort. Once over I let it down the otherside and then dropped it to the ground. I was quite pleased with my abbility to overcome this little problem! 

After that adventure, I started cycling again. Just before the main gate, which was not locked, I managed to fill my waterbottle. Out the main gate and right for the last 21 km to Marlu. This area is not flat, so I stll had some cycling to do. It is amasing how "long" 21 km can become after 4 monster days! So it was a bit of a grind, but slowly and surely the kilometers passed. Up and down over the undulations untill I saw the Marlu board. What a relieve. I really was looking forward to opening the gate and tackle the last kilometer to Marlu. 

So that was the Groot Karoo Toer. A well werth while excersice and good preperation for the FC in June 2026.

Data for the day: time 4:29; distance 51.52; meters climbed 493.

Data vir die toer: totale ry tyd 39:07:36; totale afstand 502.02; totale meters geklim 4,610