Whilst on the road this morning I had such wonderful thoughts as to what to say as the start today’s blog but my forgettery and an amazing day of scenery erased those thoughts.
Firstly: Spekboom Cottages are amazing!! James, Marie and Francois (ok, and Tiger and the rest of the doggies) your hospitality was out of this world!! The taste tour of port last night will be remembered long after our bikes are washed and we are back at work.
This morning once again we were spoilt to a very early breakfast of fruit, muesli, yoghurt and coffee (thanks Spekboom for sorting us out so early, we know that our time was highly unusual for you). At 6:30 we set off into the early morning light on our mission to Ladismith – today we were going to get there!! As we climbed out of town, I started to comprehend the longness of the morning – it was an uphill climb for a LONG time. As we pedalled, it was almost as if the sun was telling us we were too early and that it was supposed to beat us to the mountains because as we climbed, so did it, almost in a race to see who could get over Huisrivier Pass first. (Think we won this one.)
Huisrivier Pass is not a particularly steep or tough pass, its just insanely long!! It went on and on and on, ever upward draining your legs. Then came a sweeping downhill. WOOSH!! And then we climbed for an eternity. Ok, an hour and a bit but it felt long. I wish I were a poet because then I could perhaps describe this pass better, however, I did have my camera handy so bear with me as I paint a picture for you….
The WHOOSH downhill
Nearing the bottom
The above pic describes how I felt about this hill: over it!
After the pass, we meandered along rolling hills and cut through road works (we road in the road works section) ever closer to Ladismith.
After the mother of climbs, we were a bit peckish so decided to find a coffee stop and well, the guidebook had mentioned something about a place in Amalienstein so we headed into the teeny tiny… I cant even call it a town! …..township where we did find the little place called Tant Carolina. Um, ja, we shouldve guessed but it was closed. Next best thing: find milk and picnic so off we pedalled to Zoar which fortunately had a little shop where we got milk, crisps and biscuits which we enjoyed 2 or 3km out of town on the side of the road.
The bit into town was pretty with the rolling hills and was refreshing after the long start.
We arrived in Ladismith at 12 o’clock as planned which was really cool so the going was good and we all rode well. I decided to ride way out back today and occassionaly ride close to someone so that I could take pics and absorb the scenery. Really enjoyed the slow, short day.
Ladismith is quite a bit bigger than Calitzdorp and its sad we cant see Seweweekspoort but we had the slowest service on the planet (do not go to the coffeeshop by the Route 62 bottlestore (the bottlestore however is wow, they have local vino and a wealth of knowledge and is definitely worth the stop). After a bit of decision making we decided to camp and found Le Roux B&B which has camping facilities. Once again, our choice was good. After sorting our stuff, Johan and I took our unloaded bikes to find cheese, wine and a thing called “Stanley’s Light”. The light was dof and not worth the visit but the cat at the tourism office is so cute so go visit him.
All in all a good day. Tomorrow we are off to Barrydale.
The route and pics from today: http://www.a-trip.com/tracks/view/100174
Oh, just loaded it all onto google earth. Pretty cool seeing the total route. Ok, serious matters time. Its wine o’clock….
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