October 30, 2024
Day 28: Into Swellendam
The rain cleared. The mud stayed muddy. But the sun was out - so we were back on the way!
There must have been an unusual amount of rain. Most of the rivers were swollen and a few had burst their banks. The road was flooded in one place, and the canals were in danger of overflowing.
We have been setting out early most mornings, half on purpose (the wind is weakest in the morning and who knows from which direction it will blow in the afternoon) and because the sun comes up and the birds start chirping before 5am at this time of year. This put us at Ronnie's Sex Shop by 9:30am. A little too early for a milkshake. We were at first a bit surprised to have Ronnie's Sex Shop the landmark of choice used by a religious man describing to us the way to some hot springs. But, it seems this shop, the sign of which was vandalised by the owner's mates to include the word sex, is actually a pub, in a place where there isn't too much else. Pretty good marketing, pretty good land mark. But alas it was too early for us and so we pushed on to Barrydale.
In order to gain a bit of advice, Cath stalked and contacted Amanda, from a Facebook group. Amanda is an experienced solo chica cycle tourist who has cycled a lot in South Africa. Not only that, but she seems to have been drinking the same water as all the other South Africans we have met which results in an unbelievable amount of hospitality and helpfulness. Sporadic messages have been passed, mostly started by Cath asking such questions as 'how do you wild camp in South Africa, with fences, gates and razorwire?', and 'which way should we go?' etc. We discovered that we are not the only ones hassling Amanda when she let us know there was another cyclist making his way in a similar direction. As we were leaving Algerynskraal, Amanda messaged to let us know Connor was camped just up the road. We quickly discarded any likelihood we would meet this fellow cyclist as we were told he was travelling light. What a shame.
On rolling into Barrydale, Cath ended up with regret over skipping the milkshake at Ronnie's Sex Shop so stuck her lip out, quivered it a bit, and Stevo suggested stopping at a cafe up the road. Soon after we were devouring burgers and what can only be described as an "icecreamshake" (there wasn't much milk), and a message from Amanda arrived saying that someone has seen us on the road, taken a picture, sent it to Connor, who has sent it to Amanda, who has sent it to us, we have replied back saying it's us - yay. Amanda has messaged Connor and then we have a conversation with Connor, through Amanda, to find out he is down the road getting fries. Enter Connor.
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Connor, from the US, had ridden down more or less from Pretoria and was on his way to Cape Town. Connor was twenty years younger than us and at least 20kg lighter and did his best over the following couple of days to slow himself down, and keep us entertained. It's fun to have company on the road and see how others travel. Just like everyone else, it's all the same thing, but a bit different.
We rode over the Tradoupas and down into Swellendam, to camp the night at the municipal camp ground. We were there late, we left early and Caths lasting memory is the owl that called for hours in the night, sounding just like the beep of an electronic keypad. Midnight sleepless googling found it might have been the Eurasian Scops Owl... anyone who goes crazy at a ticking clock will understand my distress...
Today's ride: 105 km (65 miles)
Total: 972 km (604 miles)
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