DAY 8
Leaving De Rust to Meiringspoort made me think of only one thing, the snow that I could see on the mountain tops, I was wonder if the pass would be rideble and I tried to find out if it was even open, but no one could give me a definite answer, so common sense told me if nobody knows it is close then it must be open. Looking at the white peaks brought an evil grin to my face, as Maggie, well lets just say do not do freezing well. Riding threw Meiringspoort we stopped to have a look at the waterfall that was in full flow.
Soon we set off on the Prins Albert road heading towards Swartberg pass. As always this road never stops to amaze me with all its twists and turns. As we inch closer and closer to the white cover tops I could see the temperature dropping with every meter we climbed, stopping at a mere two degrees. At the top we were spoiled with a little bit of snow still on the side of the road and that made the freezing temperatures worth while.
Exiting the awesome Swartberg pass we went to the Kongo caves where we did a quick tour and had some brunch.
Next we headed down the R62 and made a quick detour into Seweweekspoort. At the exit of Seweweekspoort to Laingsburg we made a u-turn back to the R62. On the return leg to the R62 it was play time for me and the beast. Back on the R62 Maggie asked me in a casual almost joking way “did you have fun” I replied with a giggle.
At this stage Maggie was feeling ill from a cold she caught a couple of days earlier, so I made a decision to push hard only stopping at Ronnie’s sex shop for some hot med-lemon. After Ronnie’s I decided to cut the trip even shorter and zipped threw the Tredoux’s pass on to the N2. GSJoe had the fire waiting for a lekker braai in the Strand. So as we arrived at Dries we went to GSJoe’s place while Maggie had a hot shower and more tabs before she joined us. All that must have helped a lot because we only left GSJoe’s at 2am.
DAY 9, 10 & 11
The next couple of days were spent in and around Cape Town taking some trips in and around the area. First trip a quick one to Rooiels.
On another occasion we had brunch in Franschhoek with Dries, his wife and daughter.
Other trips included Simonstown, Cape point, Houtbaai, Chapmans peak Camps bay and finally the day just before we left we took an out ride with Dries his wife, GSJoe and his wife to Darling to visit Evita se perron
DAY 12
Now it was time to get to my favorite part of the trip, first destination Sutherland via Ceres over Bain’s kloof onto the R46. Bain’s kloof set the tone to what was to become an amazing trip.
Just after Bain’s kloof we stopped at a small little place called Togryers where we had a lekker mug of warm melkkos.
Once we started hitting the dirt road to Sutherland we were intrigued with the beautiful nothingness.
Heading merrily along the dirt highway and very thirsty we came upon the most extraordinary thing, just as we were about to pass out from heat exhaustion, yes it was hot and dry, we saw what they call a windskerm, we stopped to have a look and to our amazement it was open and inside there was everything from beers to coffee braais ready for meat, biltong, cookies and guess what you can just help yourself with nobody around… really nobody, as the chalk board put it...
“ God sê jy mag nie steel nie en dit is dit so eet, drink - kyk en krap, koop en betaal en reis veilig verder met a skoon gewete. K’roo liefde”
Well you paid for the stuff in a “roomkan” and that’s that. O and remember to close the door on your way out, to keep the sheep form entering.
From there we had a short hop to the tar road leading to Surtherland, we enjoyed riding the Verlatekloof and Rooikloof passes to Sutherland. When we arrived in Sutherland we booked into Jupiter guest house, restaurant and bar, which had electric blankets and a cozy atmosphere.
eepwall:
