Geoff Jones

I managed a 7am breakfast and was on the road at 7.40 lovely and cool with a slight wind behind me the road traffic was so heavy for the first 20 miles on the R60 that I was getting pulled along in the draught 🙂 The road is quite wide with the yellow lines so didn’t feel to bad 🙂 although probably not so good if you are the nervous type. Apart from the stunning scenery the surprise was to see a huge baboon giving me a once over at the side of the road 🙁 fortunately it slouched off.

I took the short cut to the R43 thus missing out Worcester. At the junction I popped into the Aan de Doorns Cellar and discovered the delights of chilled fizzy grape juice, 750ml demolished in a few minutes even though I had drunk 1.5 litres of water already. Unfortunately no food, although the girlies wanted my picture for the companies Facebook page.

A couple of hours later found me at The Stettyn Cellar, far more enterprising! The lady rustled up a lovely lunch made from local produce even selling wine by the glass. But with my newly found penchant for fizzy grape juice another 750ml quickly disappeared. I was sat right next to the weigh bridge so as I was leaving she weighed me and the bike 🙂 Combined total 130kg.

After lunch it was another gruelling incline towards Villiersdorp quite why there is always a head wind in the afternoon heat is beyond me.

Villiersdorp tourist office did a fine job after I emailed them my plight this morning and booked me into De Villiers Country Lodge a pleasant place. The biggest drawback for me is no shower only a bath so difficult to administer my scrubbing regime.

The town itself is not so pretty and the Village Kitchen Restaurant won’t be getting any Michelin stars any time soon. Although they did let me buy some booze from the shop next door.

Tomorrow its Stellenbosch, over the Franschhoek Pass, to see Keith & Irma who Sally and I met walking The Lycian Way in Turkey.

The   55.0mi 2,216ft are on  Strava here and the pictures here

The Karoo Moon Motel with the adjacent Diesel and Creme restaurant didn’t open up till 8am so it made for a late start especially with their service times. The “healthy breakfast” was a trendy jug filled with fruit, granola and yogurt. Not enough for me so had the two eggs as well.

I filled up with water at the local petrol station where a group of youngsters on an African Adventure truck were tucking into ice creams for breakfast. The first part of cycling alongside the vineyards was OK and the R62 even was much wider with yellow lines with a light tail  wind.

However, The Tradouw Pass soon loomed into view with it’s 1000 feet of climb, the couple who shared the Karoo Moon with me roared past on their shiny, but noisy, rented motorbikes to disappear leaving me pedalling. 1 hour 56min later I topped out (Looking at Strava now I see the record is just under 33mins! putting me at position 2233 of 2235 riders).

The Akkerboom Farm Stall just past the top was a huge disappointment the worse one yet so after a coke I pedalled on. On this side of the mountain there was a huge headwind 🙁  which was awful. I spotted some workers in a field picking apricots which they kindly gave me a handful, bit hard but delicious and a good diversion.

I crawled on with many smaller hills but overall the tendency was down 6 km out of Montagu I saw a sign for The Guano Caves, the most interesting bit being the restaurant symbol! I stopped and had a couple of coke floats amidst the building works.

I eventually made it to the upmarket 7 Church Street Guesthouse with its voluble Mancunian owner describing the route to Stellenbosch whilst showing me around my resplendent quarters in the amazing luxuriant garden. After drinking 3 pints of water I wandered around this very pleasant town, amazingly free of razor wire 🙂 I eventually had a pleasant 3 course dinner in Ye Old Tavern for 190 Rand! I had to dash back to get my wallet as I had gone out without it!

Strava says I did 40.2mi Distance and 2,684 feet of climbing all at temperatures in the mid 30’s No wonder I felt wrecked 🙁

A few pics here I’m now pretty sure all these photo links will break when the Do no Evil crowd discontinue Picasa. I’m trying to get Smugshot up and running.