Monday, June 16, 2008

16 June 2008 – Pietermaritzburg to Allendale

This morning we all cycled from the guest house to Pietermaritzburg Town Hall. We were due to start at 6:00 with to clock tower except it was 2 ½ hours slow. The ride from Pietermaritzburg was a good start to the ride with gentle rolling hills for the first 50km or so.

We stopped for lunch at one of the farms where the owner was a collector of old farming implements, tractors, motors, aircraft engines, motorbikes, in fact anything old and metal by the looks of it. Very interesting though.
After lunch we descended down a monster 12 km downhill to the Umkomaas river, and then a MONSTER 10km uphill. I haven’t checked the elevation of this mountain yet but it was steep and long. About ¾ of the way up one of the locals also cycling showed us a crystal clear cold spring just off the road. This was a life saver. The rest of the ride was very hilly, virtually no flats, either up or down hill. Mark and I stopped at a local shabeen for a coke, quite an experience.

We arrived at Allendale farm, welcomed with snacks and tea and coffee. Just what we needed. We are staying in a modified chicken coop, straw on the floor, covered with a canvas ant foam matrasses on top. I think it will be a cold night tonight.

Todays ride was 105 km with an altitude gain of 2600m

1 comment:

Gerrit said...

But what a spectacular view!