November 16, 2024 to November 20, 2024
Day 45-49: To Springbok
The dirt road to Clanwilliam took us into town - past the turn off to Cederburg. Another dirt road maybe for another time. Coffee at Clanwilliam, Cath became human, then back on the N7 to charge north. Not much to say about this part of the road. Not too busy, nice wide shoulder. Vegetation getting drier as we head north.
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3 weeks ago
We turned left at Klawer to take the smaller road further north - and get off the more busy N7.
We've now learned that the wind really picks up here in the afternoon. About 2pm, sometimes earlier. From the west in the few days we've had it.
We stopped just short of Vredendal at Deon's farm - he has a few campsites and let us stay for free because we were cycling! Pity that Deon was away for the weekend, but his mother let us in and showed us the camping area. That was great and the shower was pretty special too. After fighting the wind, we weren't interested in cooking, so we had our first Wimpy burger (lucky that it was open later than usual for the Springbok game that evening) - pretty good and not too expensive as we chose the special of the day.
Around Vredendal the whole valley is full of irrigated vineyards. As far as you can see. And irrigation channels. Its striking how the vegetation on the side of the road and non-irrigated areas looks like semi-arid area, and behind are lush vines and fruit trees. It surprised us (but shouldn't have) to wake up with a thick fog on Sunday morning. We'd hoped to get away at day break, but had to wait for the fog to lift - no need to make it too easy for the cars to hit us.
Lights flashing on the bikes, we rode up the irrigated valley past a few small towns until the fog burned off and clouds lifted and the sun came out.
We had entertained a plan of riding the small dirt roads out toward the mining areas along the Atlantic coast - as recommended to us by Amanda in Stellenbosch. Unfortunately, we found the going tough enough in the sun on the asphalt road and so have decided to head further north and spend our dirt road time in Namibia. Even so, we thought the route we were on might have a bit of gravel. But were surprised as we rode along past a mine of some sort (sand, for grinding discs we were later told) that the road remained smooth asphalt. Until it wasn’t.
The final 26km of the D363 that took us back to the N7 was a dirt road. 26km doesn’t sound like much but after bashing along this in the midday sun, we were very glad that we were heading back to the asphalt. It was undulating, corrugated, rough and occasionally soft. Without th heat and sun it might have been fun, with the sun it was a slog. We rolled into Newerus (a tiny town on the N7) and hid in the shade of a tree in front of the bottle shop. It was Sunday. Shop closed. Boo. Well, we can hide here until the temperature drops a bit. An hour later (2pm) it was still way too hot to go out in the sun, but a few people started arriving, and the shop opened! Saved by a cool (sweet) drink. We had a chat with a few locals coming back from the weekend away (some less sober than others). 'Hiking' getting a lift with a passing car, seems to be the most common mode of transport.
Maybe an hour later a cycle tourist rolled into the shop. It was Sam (26yr old from London) who was heading to Cape Town - from Kenya! Go Sam! He's almost done, and a bit faster than we'll probably be. We got a few tips from him and probably should have camped the night with him in Newerus. But we chatted for a while (until the sun was lower in the sky) and we headed north on the N7 to the next named place - Bitterfontein. A tiny place, with a petrol station that we camped behind.
The N7 north is pretty - larger and larger boulders, drier and drier vegetation - with some evident pockets of more water where the vegetation explodes in a riot of colours and smells.
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We stopped at a campground in Kamieskroon when it was too hot to go on (theme emerging here). Leaving us a leisurely 76 km to finish off the next day to Springbok. 76 km should have been an easy morning (a half day we said, we will be there early and snooze all afternoon) but we didn't get away early enough, the wind didn't help us as much as we wanted, there was no fog like previous mornings, so it was hot from the get go and the road just kept going up. The last 40 km was never ending. And there was a final climb into Springbok. We pushed on when it was clearly too hot, just to get there so we could stop. But we did get there, and after a rest day Cath is back to only mildly hating the bike and heat combination and will continue on, after all.
Springbok is the regional capital. You can get many things here. Cath found a bike shop to add a couple more water bottle cages to her bike. Steve found some thin long pants to replace the heavy cotton pants he'd been lugging around to try to stop needing to use so much sun cream. And plenty of food and drink to help recharge.
Today's ride: 386 km (240 miles)
Total: 2,009 km (1,248 miles)
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