Hey guys,
Sorry for the delay between posts, the common cold got me again. With my brain replaced by a seemingly unending supply of mucus the past week I’ve been incapable of original thought.
Did finally get back to my bike trip series today though, will try to be more diligent in future….
What we tried to do with this trip was reach the coast as quickly as possible and then take our time riding along the coastline as close to the sea as we could from PE, around Cape Point to Cape Town, and from there head inland and home.
Today we started our travels through the garden route, one of the most beautiful parts of the country. The Cape coastline is known to have some volatile weather and day three was the start of our weather woes.
We set out from PE at 9:00 AM, all sunshine and smiles. Despite a chill in the air it was still pleasant riding to Knysna for lunch. We traveled through Bloukrans pass, and was that not just the most beautiful place ever! A long winding decent into such a quiet green valley. It felt like we were in some forgotten place until a BMW X3 came screaming around the corner.
Knysna is every bit as beautiful as people say it is. We ate lunch at the Heds and watched folk with yachts and speed boats sail out to sea …
The sun was still shining on us when we left Knysna and took a quick stop past Victory Bay, just to see. Leaving Victory bay the weather started turning on us. No rain yet, but some rather unpleasant crosswinds. We rode most of the rest of the way to Stillbaai with our bikes leaning into the wind.
We were guests of Mike and Louise at Hibiscus House for the night and what wonderful hosts they were. The rooms themselves are in a house next door to their own home, so privacy isn’t an issue and you are right on the river.
We borrowed and umbrella and walked to “The Rocks” for dinner. Mike recommended them as serving what may be the best steaks in the country. I have a suspicion he could well be correct with that one. The place is a meat-eaters paradise. See the pic of the specials board below! Some other interesting items on the menu were:
1. The Rocks Grill: 400g Rump, 2 pieces of chicken and spare ribs
2. The Fisherman’s special: 150g Sirloin, Lamb chops, chicken drumstick, onion rings, 2 eggs and chips
3. As a side item, along with onion rings, chips, pineapple slices and fried egg, you could order 150g sirloin. “Can I get the Rocks grill with a side of sirloin please?” A meat lovers paradise I tell you.
During dinner we caught a news report on one of the local radio stations warning that gale force winds were expected along the coast the following couple of days (our intended route!) and that emergency services would be on full alert. We decided to see what the weather was like the following morning before making the decision whether we’d hang around in Stillbaai for another day or if we’d just push through to Simon’s Town. We may have made the wrong call on that one, but that’s day four’s story!
Highlights:
1. Bloukrans pass, absolutely stunning.
2. Lunch at Knysna. Good food in beautiful surroundings.
3. Mike & Louise from Hibiscus house. Such great hospitality.
Lowlights:
1. The unfriendly crosswinds.
The happy snaps:
Taking a break at the bottom of Bloukrans pass, the photo doesn’t do it justice …
How dense is this vegetation?
The view from lunch at Knysna
Two very different bikes, even the parking in Knysna has a view
Hibiscus house: our room had sliding doors that opened out onto a patio on the river
Todays special at The Rocks
Day two had us on the road at the much warmer hour of 9:00 AM after a breakfast of bacon, sausages and omelette’s at Umtali Lodge.
We passed through a couple of tiny towns, but non stuck in my memory quite like Hofmeyer. Perhaps two roads in the entire town, it boasted a clinic (identifiable only by the ambulance parked out front), a bottle store and 3 biltong shops. Apparently biltong is big in these parts.
Sheep farming seems pretty big in this part of the Free State also. It’s a good thing that counting sheep never did have much success putting me to sleep!
The road from Hofmeyer to Cradock was hands down my favorite. Riding towards the mountains on pale gray road in the warm sunshine, inhaling fresh air and sweet grass smells. It’s why I own a bike.
We stopped for lunch in Cradock and that was quite a surprising town. An old town, but so neat and clean, it looked like they gave everything a fresh lick of paint especially for us!
From Cradock it was through Olifantsnek Pass to Port Elizabeth. The windy city was true to form and sent a headwind out to greet us but that did nothing to dampen our spirits. We arrived at our chosen stop for the night, the Formula 1 hotel, at 3:30 PM. One glance at the dodgy looking room and we headed out and got drunk. Well not quite. After taking a walk on the beach we ate some prawns and drank some Jacks while watching the sun set out on the deck at Jimmy’s killer prawns. It had truly set before we pulled together enough (dutch) courage to go back to that hotel room 
The Highlights:
1. The warm sun and really ridable roads through unspoilt countryside made this day one of the best days of the trip.
2. The trucker at the top of the Olifantsnek pass who stopped his truck, walked directly to Hunny’s bike and said straight out: “Dis ‘n fokken lekker bike!”
Lowlights:
None?
Happy snaps …
Crisp sunlight at Aliwal North when we set out …
Top of the pass …
Me getting my toes wet: see how brave I am
Gulls on the beach …
And so ends another day: sunset from the deck at Jimmy’s …
Two weeks ago my Hunny and I set off on a much anticipated trip across our country, South Africa. Read the intro on my old Blogger site here. I promised a write up with photo’s and here it is, starting with:
Day 1: Tuesday 24 April
We set out from home at a rather chilly 6:30 AM, with only what would fit into one backpack and one tankbag as clothing and toiletries for the next 9 days. Early morning riding is lovely, especially when all the traffic is traveling towards town and you’re heading out. I used to think the Pretoria/Centurion traffic was the worst in the country until we drove past 40km’s of traffic (yes, before 7:00 AM in the morning) coming from the South towards Sandton / Rivonia. All 3 lanes of the highway were at a crawl if not a standstill. Boy am I glad I only live 15 km’s from work.
The further we headed out of town the colder it got. Our fingers started to freeze into their handlebar gripping position and I swear I had icicles forming inside my nostrils by the time we stopped outside the Vaal toll plaza to try and warm up a little.
It did warm up after that. We stopped in Ventersburg for some breakfast and when we left there the chill seemed to have pretty much left the air. The remainder of the days riding had some lovely smooth and straight roads and we set a good pace. Still, excluding a stop for lunch at the only tea garden in the tiny town of Zastron and a few petrol fill ups, it was pretty much solid riding all the way till 3:30 PM, where we stopped for the day at Umtali Lodge in Aliwal North. Less than 15 minutes later I was sound asleep. That was some hard riding: 685 km’s, the most we did on any one day for the whole trip.
The Highlights of day one:
1. The trucker who called us over to warm our hands over his cabin heater when we stopped to thaw out just past the Vaal toll plaza
2. The well maintained easy riding roads of the Free State.
The Lowlights:
Apart from the freezing cold the worst aspect for me was the amount of wildlife roadkill we rode passed: mongoose, small foxes, birds and other indistinguishable creatures. Pretty sad.
The happy snaps:
Stopping to thaw out …
Lunch in Zastron, the town may be small but the burgers are big …
Posted by: Alex
