On Monday I met with my friends from the Hogsback trip, and we enjoyed a beverage at featherstone brewery, which is unfortunately closing its bar soon.
We chatted about the week ahead and the high temperatures forecast for Grahamstown.
It was decided that we would go to Kenton for a beach walk (Tuesday).
I then mentioned doing another long cycle, and my friend’s eyes lit up. “What do you have in mind?”
Alicedale.
Now, I was thinking of doing this in the first few weeks of January.
But my friend asked “How about Wednesday or Thursday?”
Eh, why not!
Tuesday was great, we walked from Kenton to Boknes, about 10km. It was very windy but fortunately we had the wind atnour backs. Afterwards we headed to Horns Up for a drink. What a lekker spot, beach vibe but on the river and sheltered from the wind.
—-
Thursday
05:00 and I was up and packing my bicycle. We were leaving for Alicedale at 07;00.
4 of us in total, of which 2 (T and R) do long bike-packing trips fairly regularly. I was a little worried about keeping up, especially looking at the elevation profile of our route.
But we all agreed we would take it easy. It was going to be a long day with high temperatures.
We set off from Alicedale by 08:30, and settled into a comfortable pace, with T, probably the fittest, going ahead.
It was a fair bit of climbing, but we were happy to get the worst of it out of the way sooner rather than later.
Breaks were had regularly to calm the racing hearts and soak up the views. While brown and dry, it is a beautiful area.
The climb was fairly steep, but winding which helped. And the thought of fresh coffee and scones in Riebeek East spurred us on!
And did that snack go down well! I contemplated only having one scone but decided “why not?!” and had two. Good thing I did- little did I realise the next 25km or so would be into wind.
Fortunately we only had short climbs followed by fun descents, so it was easy enough to recover.
T, who had been leading in the beginning, was starting to struggle with the heat. R plodded along. And B and I stuck together at the back. At one point he asked if I had ever cycled in someone’s slipstream. I hadn’t.
So we set off in tandem, me getting as close as I dared to his rear wheel (about 1 foot). Wow! So cool! We went screaming along with almost no effort from me
About 2/3 of the distance in we stopped for lunch in a cave.
R had mentioned a friend got him onto fried egg sandwiches, so I had made myself one that morning. Delicious! Far better than my usual peanut butter and bovril.
We chatted a while but when T started dozing we decided it was time to get moving otherwise we all would have happily had a nap in the cave.
The temperature had shot up, and while the wind was more from the side and occasionally behind, we were all struggling with the heat. We counted down the kilometers, visualizing the cold beers that were waiting for us.
10km.
5km.
The final stretch was downhill. Glorious!
We were tired. But happy. A tough but beautiful 60km.
Seeing T fading at the end I was reminded once again that we are all human. And we have different strengths. I am slow, but I find I recover quickly and can mission on for ages.
And I am very happy that my legs didn’t get sorr. So I am definitely getting stronger and fitter.
But I slept very well!
Today I am not sore, but I do feel rather pap.
Fortunately I am off to the sea after work today
Topic: My African Dream (Read 232767 times)
