Day 4 - Bucklands to Marlu

 We opted for a early start to try and "beat" some of the midday heat, so the wheels got rolling at just after 06:00. We were in two groups: Mark, Alan and myself were going to take the Freedom Challenge route out of Bucklands via Trentyre to the Cockscomb/Grootrivierpoort junction, while the rest of the guys opted for a road straight to this junction. The tree of us who "tackled" the Trentyre track had a really awesome ride, with some rough patches  but as we went along the road improved. From Trentyre to the Hottentotspoort junction was a good farm road and from there to the Steytlerville/Cockscomb junction, where we were to meet up with the other guys, was a good district road. We reached the junction after 1:55 and waited 15 minutes for the other guys to turn up. They took a bit of a "detour" and therefore took longer than anticipated. 

The road to Steytlerville was fairly flat and we turned on the "heat" and motored at a good pace. About 15 km from Steytlerville we caught up with Hennie, who left Bucklands just after 05:00 to start from Marlu at 07:11. In town we stopped at the Rooi Malva for some refreshments. This took us nearly and hour and the temperature was rising. The "drag" out of Steytlerville is a 7 km steady climb followed by a gentle downhill leading to a 1-2% incline over the next 10-20 km. Danie decided to take it "easy" in the heat and Hasie kept him company. The rest of us formed an echelon with Marc and Alan setting the pace at 15-20 kph depending on the gradient. The last 10 km to the road we cycled along on Sunday, was very up and down with short little hills which did not take to much effort to overcome. At the junction we turned left and had 9 km left to Marlu. Once again this was fairly undulating and after another 28 minutes we reached the Marlu turn-off with another 3 minutes to the farmstead. 

After 6:43:37 and 89.02 km we completed the day. The temperature hovered between 38-42.5 since we left Steytlerville and remained around 42 for the last 20 km. 

What a wonderful experience with an amazing group of guys.

Over the four days of cycling we covered 394.44 km and spent 28:22 in the saddle.