Part II, the 'Return', A LITTLE trip, on a LITTLE bike...

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zebra

Bachelor Dog
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So I heeded the advice received in this thread: https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=178845.0, and went back to Sir Lowry's Pass, and made my up to the top of the mountain... ofroad


1st up, I parked my car at the Sheell Garage near the foot of the pass, unloaded the bike and rode the 500m of so of tar up to Sir Lowry's Pass VILLAGE...
then found the beautiful gravel service road that follows the railway line most - but not ALL the way  ;D - up Sir Lowry's Pass
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it was a beautiful ride, on a lekker road, through a nice 'treed' road', felt like I was riding up an Avenue...!
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Some very nice Viaducts passing under the railway line in a couple of places, all in very good condition, almost like the day the were (over)built!
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Then, as expected, the gravel service road ended abruptly, with a track leading off left and right, BUT, and I respected this (and so should we all!), that track is ONLY for mountain-bikers...

So, after chatting to a few people, finding out about 1 or 2 trains per day, i decided to ride the line uphill, to the 1st tunnel...

Much, much more difficult than I expected! First I rode BETWEEN the tracks, which is naturally pretty bumpy, and the large 'ballast' made it slow going...

this was at 2pm, and it was warm, but the added effort of riding 1st gear in a straight line, made for a hot exercise!

I felt that if I did need to 'clear the track' quickly, it can be difficult extracting the bike QUICKLY, so I decided to ride next to - right next to - the track...

this was also hectic - since the ballast - which has a function - was 'raked' quite steeply, and made riding difficult....

So I opted to ride down the side-slope, where I could, but this was not always possible....

I learnt many lessons of how easy it was to 'pop' the front wheel INTO the tracks, and conversely, how difficult it was to get the REAR wheel OUT of the tracks; there seems to be insufficient angle to gain momentum to do the OUTWARD hop!

Got to the 1st tunnel - the short one, nice and light, nice and straight... ;D , and had a bit of a break...!
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Very nice sitting for maybe 30 mins or so, watching the paragliders taking off from Sir Lowry's car park, on a rising north-West wind, taking off and then going .....upwards!
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Decided AGAINST any further tomfoolery, doubled-back 200m, and escaped onto Sir Lowry's right near the top; was NOT going to ride fist-sized ballast for any longer period of time!

Road off-road down parts of the other side of Sir Lowry's, basically hugging the fence-line, like before, and crossing from side to side of the N2 avoiding tar wherever possible...

Found the Houw Hoek 4x4 track and it was exactly where indicated, and what a brilliant piece of track it is!!!
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then onto to Villiersdrop thru the Van Der Stel Pass, and the best ribs in the Overberg...
 
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