Fraserburg to Prince Albert

Monday 30 July 2007

I awoke to a clear and windless winter morning. Leaving at 05h00 I had to force my way through air that seemed on the verge of changing from Oxygen to liquid nitrogen. Once again, I lost my gears to the cold; iced up on the centre chain wheel. I didn't really mind though, I was in good spirits as today I would be dropping off the escarpment through the Nuweveld Mountains and was I looking forward to the hills!

I started climbing steadily soon after turning onto the dirt road outside Fraserburg, the full moon so bright in the clear air, that I didn't need my head torch to light the way.

I rode in and out of patches of silent mist as I climbed; everywhere the frost lay thick like snow on the ground, stray pools of water transformed into circles of ice. I had managed to work my gears loose -- none too soon as I now needed to move into climbing mode. It suddenly came to me that this was the first time since leaving Askham 6 days ago that I had need of my small chain ring! The sun rose quietly over a mountainous landscape, a feast for my eyes. I cannot describe the feeling of joy in being in such a varied landscape; my senses drank it in as if trying to satisfy a Kalahari thirst.

I reached the top of the pass along with the cold snap of sunrise, which I countered with two small cups of piping hot coffee from my Verneukpan flask. I walked around a bit, hugged the sign indicating 'Caution! Steep descent' and spoke briefly to a farm worker walking with his sheepdog to work on the neighboring farm.

With my gears firmly wedged in top gear, I wound down through the Oukloof Pass, watching the layers of mountains unfold in front of me. Funny how you can form a picture in your mind, that even though you know is unrealistic, you secretly and naively believe it to be true. When drawing up my profiles for the trip, the profile for this day showed a steep downward slope for 120km.

That was true in that I would drop close on 1000m during the day. In my mind however, I imagined reaching the top of Ouberg Pass, and then freewheeling for 120km to Leeu Gamka, which I would see far below me in the dim blue distance. Of course, it wasn't anything like that, and I only recall about 8-10km of fast downhill, then what seemed like level riding for the remaining 110km.

I finally came to the turnoff that I had marked on my map, which would take me to Leeu Gamka.

I was surprised to find that the road, marked on the map as a main dirt road was in reality merely a farm track with a large 'CUL DE SAC' sign posted at the locked gate. I checked the map, even taking out my 1:50 000 maps of the area but it appeared correct, so I swung my bike over the gate (try doing that with a 4x4!). The road was fine for a bit, but then seemed to fade out, leading into a dry riverbed. I was enjoying the riding, but was starting to get a little concerned, as this road, according to the map was the only one leading to Leeu Gamka in this area, and I still had over 100km to go. I decided to see if I could get some information from the farm indicated on the map a little further up the road. On reaching the farm, it was immediately obvious that I would be getting no answers as the buildings were broken down and derelict. The road had now completely disappeared, and I was following a thorn-strewn cattle track in and out of the dry, sandy riverbed. Now what to do? I have no problem riding single track, in fact I was really hoping to find a lot more on this trip. But finding myself on my own on a track that had disappeared, with still 100km to the closest town, and I was not feeling nearly as brave as I sometimes appear.

Sit down again. Take out the maps. What to do? Well, the map looked right, but the road had disappeared, that much was true. The map however did indicate a number of farms up ahead, and I just couldn't believe that they could all be abandoned. I decided that I would push on, in the hope that the road conditions would eventually improve or at least not disappear entirely. All pumped up and ready to tackle the unknown, I rode around the very next corner slap bang into a district road!

At precisely the same time, a farmer from the farm Rooiheuwel happened to see me on the 'wrong' side of the fence and stopped. We had a good chat, and the story came out that the road I was on was washed away in the floods of 2000, along with the farmhouse I had seen. A new section of road had been constructed to bypass the road I had just taken, and so the riddle was solved. He told me that a few farmers in the area have formed a mountain bike club and regularly go on rides in and around the Nuweveld Mountains. This is definitely an area that gets an entry in my little black book under the category 'needs further exploration'!

The remainder of the trip to Leeu Gamka was fairly uneventful, although I did notice that the people seemed to be very friendly. On two separate occasions I was stopped by farmers wanting to know if I was OK, offering lifts and just generally wanting to chat about my trip. My perception is that the further north I was on the trip, the less interest I generated from the

passing (flying) traffic. Typical Karoo veld and farms with lots of stone sheep kraals and buildings greeted me along the route, and I arrived at Leeu Gamka at around lunch time. I collected my

support parcel from the post office, which is inside the general dealer, which is attached to the hotel. Although I had arranged to sleep in the hotel that night, I was still feeling reasonably OK, so I decided to move on to Prince Albert. I had been watching the Swartberg Mountains growing taller, and I was keen to place myself under their watchful eye before nightfall. I rode onto the N1 and after polishing off a very large burger at the N1 Ultra City, I was back on the road again.

The route involved a reasonable amount of climbing, and the 190-odd kilometers of riding were starting to talk to my body. I crested the last uphill before the town as the setting sun lit up the Swartberg in a final display before handing over to the ice princess.

I revelled in the last few kilometers of downhill, arriving in the main road as it got dark. Battling to find a place to stay that fitted my budget, I wandered around from guest house to guest house, eventually finding help from some of the locals who phoned around and got me installed in a very luxurious house, complete with DSTV and jacuzzi, at a special rate. On their recommendation, I had supper at a cozy little restaurant where I enjoyed the warmth of the fire, the meal and the hospitality.

After the normal routine of bike service, packing, rearranging kit and preparing my maps for the next day, I fell into bed, not having made use of either the DSTV or the jacuzzi! The bed topped them all.

Day 7: Fraserburg to Prince Albert
Distance: 196.28km
Time: 13hrs (05:00 – 18:00)
Average riding speed: 20.67km\h