RASA Day 20

RASA Day 20
We all opted for a 05:30 breakfast and a 06:00 start for the ride go Montague. The first 30 odd kilometers was on farm roads, down a dry riverbed and finishing off with a jeep track. It took us 2:15 to complete this section, which took us onto a top quality district road. After a short while on this road, we entered the Anysberg Nature Reserve. The road through the reserve had sections which was excellent to some very rough and rocky sections. We had a 25 km ride to the office, where we were welcomed by Meisie, who had a meal and some coffee ready for us.

After a stop of about 35 minutes, we were on our way again. The road out the other side was very similar to the road in. Riding on these "twee spoor paadjies" is a real joy and I was enjoying myself. After 27 km we went through the Anysberg gate and onto another district road of top quality. Even though we were generally gaining altitude we managed to maintain a good average speed. We had a "refreshment" at the Die Hoek van die Berg junction.

We got going with a light breeze on our backs. The road took us to a T-junction after 3 km and that was followed by 9 km of real Karoo undulations, which ended at the top of Ouberg Pass. The descent down the Pass was "fast and furious". The rest of the ride into Montague was pleasant with more downhills than uphills and we arrived at Montague Country Hotel at 15:40.

Total distance: 123.03 km; total time: 9:30:48; total ascent: 1,433 meters; total descent: 1,839 meters

RASA Day 19

RASA Day 19
The bus got rolling at 04:45 after an excellent breakfast prepared by Ria. The first couple of kilometers was easy riding until we started Swartberg Pass. It was quite an interesting experience cycling up the pass in the dark. It probably is less intimidating than doing it in the day because you can not see what is still coming. It took me about 2 hours to cover the 17 km from Prince Albert to the top of the pass. We then had a gentle down hill to the Gamkaskloof turn off. At the turn there is a sign which reads "37 km but allow 2 hours for driving". This is because of the difficulty of the road! Initially the road is quite undulating and after a number of smallish climbs and some down hills, you start the last major climb after 21 km. This climb is about 7 km and is as difficult as the Swartberg Pass and this is followed by a difficult and scary descent into Gamkaskloof. I arrived at our midmorning stop at 10:15. Here we had a good meal, freshly backed bread and coffee. We got going again at 10:45.

A 15 km ride up the valley brought us to the foot of "die leer". This was the only route in and out of Gamkaskloof before the road was built in 1962. The people used donkey the bring goods in and take produce out. It is a virtual vertical path up the side of the mountain. It took me 70 minutes to cover the approximately 500 meters! Total ascent was 385 meters.

How strong are you? @Philipler conquers 'The Ladder' in 1:15 at age 65. pic.twitter.com/yDvlPBJUVb
— Leon Kruger (@PopsEL6) July 16, 2014

After we had a breather at the top, we had to first tackle the 10 jeep track which took us to the district road which goes past the entrance to Seweweekspoort. This jeep track is in such a poor state that it took us 90 minutes to cover the 10 km. the initial 7 km of the district road consisted of gradual climbs until we got to the top of what is called Horlosiekrans. This was followed by some wonderful downhills and sone more manageable climbs up to the Rouxpos turn off. The last 10 km to Rouxpos was also a number of gradual climbs followed by some minor downhills up to the last climb, which was a bit of a sting in the tail. From the top of this nasty little it wax all downhill to Rouxpos, where I arrived at 17:35.

Total distance: 123.94 km; total time: 12:51:18; total ascent: 3,385 meters: total: descent: 3,387 meters.

RASA Day 18

RASA Day 18
We decided to go for a 04:00 start again and actually managed to get going at 04:15. Willowmore was covered in mist, which made the first 10 km quite tricky, but it was not too cold. The road to the first turnoff was as straight as a dye and in a good condition. After 16 km we turned right to go through Leeukloof and onto Strydomvlei. It looked like a road that is not well used with mostly only two tracks being visible, but the surface was excellent and we were able to maintain a good pace. The next turnoff was after 45 km and we covered that in less than 2:45. Here we took a left turn for 7 km and then right for 41 km. Suddenly the temperature dropped to a minimum of -5.5, but it felt like -15! I have never in my life been this cold. Due to this our average speed also dropped because it was just too cold to go fast. At 08:00 the temperature was still at -4.8. By 09:00 it moved into positive territory. With that our average speed also picked up. We reached our halfway stop after 86 km at 10:20. Here we had a nice pasta dish and freshly backed "vetkoek". Total stoppage time was 51 minutes.

The balance of the day's ride to Prince Albert was over reasonably good roads with the odd patch of sand and a fair number corrugations.  We still managed a good pace and pulled into Dennehof Guest House at 14:55.

Total distance:162.4 km; total time: 10:39:55; elevation gain: 1,010 meters; elevation loss: 1,194 meters

RASA Day 17

RASA Day 17
We left Kudu Khaya at 04:00. It was not too cold and we had a clear sky. Leon Kruger joined George and myself. We were onto Combrink Pass very quickly and the other two pulled away from me. I did not try and chase them and went up at my own pace. When I got to Boplaas I stopped and got my music out. If I ride on my own, I may just as well listen to music! Go down the other side was fairly slow in the dark because the road surface is not very good. The sun rose as I was about halfway up Holgat Pass.

George and Leon were waiting there for me and we had sandwiches and coffee. Leon had a small flask which he filled up before we left this morning. Going down in day light was much quicker and I passed both of them on the way down after I lost sone time sorting my music out after our stop. The rest of the way to Dam se Drif, our halfway stop, was much easier, but we still had to master some climbs and undulations. We pulled in at Dam se Drif at 11:00 after 7 hours in the saddle. Here we treated to an early lunch consisting of mince and pasta covered with cheese, pumpkin, potato salad, spicy backed beans, jot bread rolls and Hestelle's famous chocolate pudding and custard. She also gave each of us 4 snackwiches. We spent 50 at the "lunch" stop.

The road from here to Willowmore is not that difficult but generally heads up, so we were spending a lot of time cycle roads with an incline of 2-4%, which is tiring and difficult to maintain a good average speed. After about 50 km we entered the Nuwekloof, which ends with the Nuwekloof Pass. The actual kloof is something out of this world and after riding through the kloof with vertical cliffs on both sides, it ends with the final climb up the pass and the turnoff to Willowmore. From here we had 34 km left, which was better riding but still had a number of hills to over come. We made good time and came to our last obstacle for the day. We had to climb over a 3 meter high fence. George and myself arrived there first, just as we managed to get our bikes across, Leon arrived and Francois Otto, who over shot the turnoff and to come back, also arrived, so we helped them as well to get over. The last 5 km from there to the Willows was N easy ride and we arrived on Willowmore at 16:50.

Total distance: 157.76 km; total time: 12:50:57; total ascent: 2,770 meters; total descent: 2,132 meters.

RASA Day 16

RASA Day 16

The night out in the bush was quite pleasant. I remarked to George that I had quite a good sleep and he remarked back"I could here that"! The sun woke us just before 07:00 and we got our things together and went to look for the track again. George then noticed the orange tape on one of the reeds and that was a sure sign that we were on the right track. I visit did some scouting and noticed that as I went down the stream last night, I should have just crossed the river. So, we were on our way. The old jeep track was clearly visible and we followed it until it disappeared again. After some scouting we found the track through the reeds and across the river. This carried for the next two hours until we reached the final climb out of the river. We stopped and put on our dry riding shoes again and dis some riding again. That was until we encountered the river again. We studied the maps and confirmed that we had to cross it again. Off we the shoes and this time I went through bare feet. The track appeared and disappeared on a regular basis. After about 2 hours 30 minutes, we finally reached the 3 meter high fence we had to get over. That done we were onto a reasonable jeep track until we got to the river again. Shoes off, through, dry feet with bicycle wash towel, shoes on and going. A little on and we finally got to the public road that would take us through to Kudu Khaya. After some discussion, we decided to remain there for the day so that we can recuperate for for the final push through to Diemersfontein.

We had last night supper for an early lunch, got washing done, showered, serviced bikes and "chilled" for the rest of the afternoon.

Total distance: 03:35:18; total distance: 15.19 km; total ascent: 402 meters; total descent: 357 meters.

RASA Day 15

RASA Day 15
We left Bucklands at 06:38 and had a very pleasant ride over farm roads for about 12 km after which we joined up with the district road which would take us through Hottentotspoort and onto the beginning of the Osseberg Pass. Along the way we stopped for coffee and "beskuit" at Hadlee. I also managed to book an entry for the 2015 Attakwas, which opened at the beginning of the week and was filling rapidly.

We road from Hadlee to the Grootriver currently is a bit of a construction site as they are busy laying a water pipe from the valley floor to Streylerville. We encountered lots of construction vehicles and in places the road turned into a powdery dust. Generally the surface was good and we had a good journey into the awesome Grootriver valley.

The scenes from the road made one aware of the might power of the Lord in creating this beautiful world. The ascent on the other side is mostly unridable for mere mortals like we and we pushed our bike up the hill. The work George did on his rear wheel at Bucklands was holding up well and he did not have to pump it again.

We stopped at a Nature Reserve dwelling just before the top of the watershed for some fresh water, but could not find any outside taps and the building was locked with no one at home. I managed to get water here when I recci-ed the route from Kleinpoort to Montague in 2010.

We reached the entrance to the Osseberg at 14:00 and had a little refreshment stop after we crossed the "No Entry" sign, which the beginning. The first couple of hundred meters was completely unridable, but as we moved along we encountered more and more ridable sections. We also had some scary down hills and George managed to "loose it" on one of these, fortunately with more injury to his pride than to the body!

It took us 3:00:53 to cover the 21.86 km to the old neglected camp site, which signaled the beginning off our river crossings.

From here the trail became a "hit and miss" affair with some of the trail clearly visible and the next it just disappears! We took off our riding shoes and put on shoe brought specially for this. I had my doubts about my R79,99 Pep Stores slip-ons and really cursed myself for mot opting for shoes with laces. The shoes did the job, but I had to retrieve them a number of times when they got stuck and my foot slipped out! The going was very difficult, but we were moving along reasonably well. Every now and then we picked up, what obviously was the right track just to come to a dead end again after a while. Nightfall was busy catching us, but we regularly picked up other cycle tracks and obvious thorough fares through the reeds. By about 20:00 we picked up a nice track, which was correct and made good progress again until we came to some reeds again. I went ahead and scouted the route and found what I thought was the correct path. At this point we were under the impression that we were further along the route than where actually were. This resulted in lots of discussions and more scoutings. After a long while, we agreed that we should go through the reeds, but this time I could not find the path I did previously! Back to the entry again! We had more discussions and more  scouts until we decided to call it a day and spend the night at the foot of the Osseberg. In the meantime a light drizzle started. We looked for some reasonable cover, got our space blankets out and settled in for the night. There were no cell phone reception so we could not let anybody know where we were. By now we realised that we were quite a bit further back in the trail than what we thought originally. We got to rest at 23:05. The weather was pleasant with the drizzle falling, but our space blankets was keeping us dry.

Total distance: 83.52 km; total time: 14:51:46; total ascent: 2,072 meters; total descent: 2,244 meters.

RASA Day 14

RASA Day 14
Toekomst to Bucklands. Today was a relatively easy day with no major obstacles. After some district roads we had go navigate our way around the Darlington Dam. There were number of "dicy" turns we had to find, but we got through without too much trouble.

This was followed by a journey down the Gwaas valley. The road started off as a good farm, then it became a rough jeep track and then it turned into a journey up a dry river bed. This was "spiced" with some very rough sections where one just went up the valley. We eventually reached a game fence, after which the road improved significantly. Most of the traveling was up hill and after the previous long day, we found this very energy sapping. George's rear tyre was still playing up and we had to stop every 20 km so that he could pump it.

The Gwaas valley linked up with the district road running through the Perdekloof and we enjoyed a nice downhill leading up to another uphill and the turnoff to Kleinpoort. At Kleinpoort we stopped at the shop for some refreshments. While sitting their, Patrick Gruer walking in. He is the landlord of the Kleinpoort over night stop. We did not even realise that there was an official stop with supplies for the riders! We declined as we have bought some refreshments all ready and needed go push on to Bucklands.

The journey to Bucklands was pleasant, being mostly down hill and we made good time into Bucklands, arriving there at 18:00.

After supper George resealed his rear wheel, putting in new tape and a patch were the broken spoke was.

For some reason my trip meter lost all the data for the day!