FC2026 Day 13 Romansfontein to Hofmeyr

 FC2026 Day 13 Romansfontein to Hofmeyr

To get the schedule of problomatic navigation such that we can do them in daylight, we decided to only go as far as Hofmeyr. That will mean that we get the Elsndsberg and Coetzerskloof sections done in good daylight, so we took the decision to leave at 07:30 so that we can also tackle Aasvoëlkop in good daylight.

Tilla and I got going at 07:20. Will Terblanche showed us the route through his farm to the main road and we "nailed" it once again. That was followed by 5 km on the district road up to the Gunsteling turn off to take us to Aasvoëlberg. Tilla once again "excelled" over the "bumps" in the farm track down to the first turn off and enjoyed it so much that she missed the turn, but very quickly realised her mistake. That lasted about 2 minutes and was the only navigational error for the day! 

The track up to Aasvoelberg was rough and got rougher as we went slong. About 50% of the first 2.4 km was ridable and only 10% of the next 3 km. It was also very steep. The top was covered in mist and I was quite weary and concerned about getting lost in the mist, but we got the navigation nailed to the "T"! I did recall that we crossed the top on a flatter section in 2019, but decided to stick to the narrative. As we approached the last fence, we saw the Graafs and Ron Rutland lower down on the flatter section. They must have gained about 15 minutes on us by taking that option. We consolidated at the top, made sure of the way down and then Tilla, Ron and myself started the decent. The top half once again was about 50% ridable with steep and rocky sections, which made riding tretseous. Anout halfway down we stopped for some refreshments and then continued to the bottom. 

At the bottom there was a short section of s farm road which connected us with the R344 Tarkasstad road. The first 10 km of this was a steady climb, which was energy sapping. Once over the top we encountered some of the most stunning views and some of the best riding of this FC up to this point. Mostly downhill and the road surface varied from good the excellent. 

It was overcasted and realy cold, but good riding weather with a fairly strong wind on our backs. We negotiated a couple of T-juntions and then had only 11 km left to Hofmeyr. On a smooth and mostly downhill road we made good tine and "clocked in" at the Victoria Boutique Hotel at 15:10.

Data for the day: time 7:51:42; distance 71.92 km; climbed 993 meters.

If there are some "IT savy" people reading this blog and know hiw I can get photos posted, it will be apreciated. I used to be able to but when I niw click on the photo icon it tells me I do not have access to my Google account!