Upington to Kenhardt

Thursday 26 July 2007

I have always believed that duct tape and cable ties will fix anything, but I never reckoned that I would use them on my arse! Well, not the cable ties, but I cut two strips of duct tape, placed some gauze in the middle, Betadine on the gauze and slapped them over the offending cheeks, followed by two pairs of cycling shorts and one pair of cycle tights. It didn't work, and I must surely have broken some record by riding the entire 120km without once sitting on the saddle.



I am going to leave this subject completely alone, other than to say that it clouded my trip to the bitter err…..end!





Leaving in cold conditions, I rode through the silent, sleeping town of Upington and over the Orange River. I then followed the winding road that hugged the river until it headed south near the village of Louisevale.


Sunrise on the trip was always the highlight of my day, and was worth every minute of the cold snap that always seemed to accompany the event. This morning was no exception as it gleefully splashed golden paint on the last few koppies I would see for the next few days, and on a lone wise old Kokerboom on the side of the road. Resting forever under its shade lay a sun-bleached skeleton of an antelope.


























I was pleased to see no signs of the cold front that was at that moment causing serious flooding in and around the Western Cape.

The road from this point sliced a straight (no really, I don't mean generally in a southerly direction or meandering very much to the south or anything like that, I really do mean ……straight!) path directly to Kenhardt through flat veld (again, I don't mean quite flat with the odd koppie breaking the monotony, or gently rolling low-lying hills or almost completely flat, I mean ……flat!).

I didn't realize just how difficult it would be to ride a flat road. Staying motivated to keep going with no ups or downs or bends was mentally the most difficult riding I have ever done. The worst was watching the signboards run from 80km to 70km etc, etc down to Kenhardt. At first I tried to ignore them, looking away as they came up, but my brain just laughed at me and shouted the answer over and over until I couldn't ignore it anymore. So I decided that if I you can't beat them, at least make them laugh, and started playing silly buggers, posing at each road sign for a self portrait.













































At about 20km to Kenhardt, the ground fell away slightly and for the first time in three days of riding, I saw land ahead of me that affording a view other than a flat horizon. Sounds weird now to even think of this as significant, but at the time it was eye candy of note!

I rode down the main road, burst through the saloon doors in a cloud of dust, eyes wild and clear from the harsh desert sun, my voice deep and steady with the dust of the land, 'Brandy' I growled, 'and make that a double!'. Actually, if I recall my actual words they were something about 'I'm just so sandy' and 'Does the bath have bubbles?'. Either way, I was soon installed in a room at the Kenhardt Hotel and spent a very pleasant afternoon servicing my bike, doing washing, relaxing and walking around the town in plastic coated leggings, cycle-shell and stokies, which was actually my entire recreational wardrobe for the trip!

I collected my parcel containing spares, maps and other consumables from the Post Office in Kenhardt. I then repacked my kit, and posted back in the same package anything that I did not need, such as used maps, etc. This was one of two such packages I had sent 'Poste Restante' (they just love it when you talk foreign!) to selected towns along the route, and the system worked very well.









I had supper at the hotel and watched the weather reporter on TV talk about probable snowfalls, extreme cold and widespread rain reaching up as far as Upington. With this thought walking slow circles in my mind, I drifted off to sleep.

Day three Upington to Kenhardt
Distance: 123km
Hours: 7hrs 50mins (05:10 – 13:00)
Ave riding speed: 20.65