FC2026 Groenfontein na Pearston

 FC2026 Day 15 Groenfontein to Pearston

Groenfontein to Pearston would have been a big day with Schurfteberg, Coetzerskloof and Struishoek in it and we devcded that we will go for it! We therefore decided that it will be an early start. 

We got going at 04:55. There were a big party leaving at that time, but Tilla, myself and Ron Rutland got going at the same time and were first out of the blocks. It was the main farm road to the main road. Once we were on the main riad, the climbing started immediately. The road took us past the farm where my dad was born and grew up, called Doringrivier. Just before we got there, it started drizzling, so we stopped to put on some rain cloths. Fortunately the dizzle faded within about 20 minutes. At Doringrivier we went left to go past Stuttgart, an old support station and then onto the Garslandskloof road. On the way there, we twice had to cross the Pauls River again, but this time we could cycle through. 

We took a left on the Garslandskloof road and within 150 meter right towards Rocklands, De Hoek and ultimately Schurfteberg. This road started off nicely but got rougher the higher we progressed up the valley. Just before De Hoek it became a very rough jeep track. There also was some tricky navigation around De Hoek and then we started on Schurfteberg Pass. This is a vey rough and steep pass taking us over the watershed. The top of the mountain was covered in mist and the wind was blowing a storm! Going up the mountain was laboureous and very hard work! It was steep and rocky so for us there was only one option, to push! It took us a good while to get to the top. Once there, we went a little down the otherside to get out of the wind and had something to eat.

Once finished we tackled the downhill and Tilla once again realy enjoyed that. At the bottom we had a couple of kilometers before we had to negotiate Coetzerkloof. This is an old track running down the kloof. The first part is quite ridable but in the middle there is a 1.5 km section where we had to follow a cattle track and then cross the river to pick up a ridable farm track. I did "recci" this in October last year and found the 1.5 km to be tretseous. Now that a number of cyclists have been down there it was much easier to follow. We did have a little trouble finding the connection with the farm track, but did get it after awhile. From there it was easy riding to Fietskraal, where we arrived at just before 13:00. We had a quick lunch and was on our way by 13:30. We did compenplated remaining there as it was going to be touch and go for is to reach the Struishoek portage before dark. 

 From Fietskraal we went down the road for a few killmeters and then through a farm/game reserve from where we had to cross another mountain. This little exersice took a little longer than what I antisipated it would and the possibility to make Struishoek before dark was disappearing by the kilometer. By the time we finally did cross the watershed, we had about an hour to cover 20 difficult kilometers. 

We found an old shed, a reference point on the narrative, just as the final daylight faded away. From there we had to find a gate, but now it was dark and the navigation became very difficult. We did eventually find the gate and the next reference point was a pedestrian gate in the corner of a fence. We left our bicycles at the gate and started walking. The pedestrian gate was NW of the main gate and about 500 meters away. After awhile we looked at the compass and saw that we were walking north, so we went back and tried again, this time in a more westerly direction. There actually was a vehicle track. On this we did pick up cycle tracks. This led to a fence where the track started to follow the fence leadind us to the pedstrian gate! We went back to retreive our cycles and proceeded through the gate. The route down Struishoek is marked with white painted stones. We walked along the fence, but did not find any painted rockes. 

Just before we found the pedstrian gate, I said to Tilla that we should spend another hour looking, if we find nothing, we must go back to the shed and spend the night there, to start again at first light! She did not like this at all and was confident that we find our way!

We dicided to leave our bikes and look for painted rocks. Tilla went back to the gate and I proceeded in a westerly direction. I did pick up a track and started walking back to the gate along the track and, low and behold, I found a painted rock. I called Tilla, we once again retreived our bikes and went to the rock. We then went down the track and picked up more painted rocks, so now we found the entrance to the Struishoek portage and did that in the dark! 

The decent down the gully was slow and tiring. Some of the rocks we had to go over were big boulders, other were smaller and every now and then we also saw a white painted rock. The Struishoek portage is just over 2 km and we found the entrance at about 19:00. By the time we got to the bottom and proceeded riding down a ridable track, it was about 21:00! 

We took a break towards the end of the track at 21:33 and started riding again. The track connected to an excellent road and we were "gunning" down to the tar road which would take us to Pearston. Just to highten the tension, the sign at the T-juntion indicated Somerset East to the left and Graaff-Reinett to the right! Tilla was quite concerned, but I asured her that to get to Graaff-Reinet we had to go through Pearston! 

We arrived there at 22:38 and was welcomed by the owner of the Pearston Hotel, who had followed our progress on Live Tracking. After a scrupteuos meal of stew, rice and a brownie covered with cream, we were off to bed!  What a day!!

Data: time 17:?!:??; distance 95.??; climbing ?,??? Meters