Luxury Southern African Travel

With Jaco on the road and me in the support vehicle, we set to carry on through the Karoo. I have traveled many times through the Karoo but this route brings about a new meaning to the Karoo, a dry area full of beauty. I could spend quite some time out here. I’m surprised that this area doesn’t have more safari styled accommodations for the luxury travel market. Each and every farm provides some form of accommodation in the form of guest houses. Jaco set off in the morning heading towards Anysberg Nature Reserve. Today two options for the route. The main route was a smoother and easier dirt track and the alternative being more undulating and providing more climbing. Jaco chose the alternative route and it proved to be quite challenging. The track was sandy and mildly technical forcing some walking to be done. Our night’s accommodation was at Anysberg Nature Reserve. The accommodation was simple as was dinner. Two other folk, of which one was a replacement rider, are to join us tonight.

Ascent Today	Traveled Today
Ascent: 868m	Time Traveled: 6hrs25min
Overall Trail
	Legend: Yellow is today’s route Black is the overall route
Distance Traveled: 74.1km

Tags: Mountain Bike Trips by Admin
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This was one of the days I most looked forward to. A day where I would get to do my first porterage up Die Leer (The Ladder). We were informed it would take about an hour today which took us 1hr1min. It’s not the time that’s the challenge other than being able to get up it and to the main way without blisters about an inch in diameter. This for me sadly was to be the end of the Freedom Trail as a cyclist with almost every part of my body giving me some form of problem. Jaco carried on to complete the day describing as “sadistic”. I think this was largely due to the fact that the narratives were written by people a lot fitter than us keeping in mind Jaco is pretty fit. His major problem now is the cold / flu that we thought to be getting better is just not letting go. We spent the night at the farm Rouxpos with our hosts Ronel and Gerhard.

Ascent Today	Traveled Today
Ascent: 1507m	Time Traveled: 7hrs41min
Overall Trail
	Legend:   Yellow is today’s route Black is the overall route
Distance Traveled: 63.7km

Tags: Mountain Bike Trips by Admin
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And so starts the second half of our journey on the Freedom Trail. Today’s ride will take us through the Swartberg Pass and down into Die Hel. From knowledge and word of mouth, it’s a hellish trip especially if you are doing it in the reverse of what we are doing. Today was to be a challenging day with nothing anyone said being as they say. The Swartberg Pass has its own beauty with vast open spaces and very steep long climbs. After reaching Teeberg we split off to the right and followed the valley through some long climbs and downhills. After quite some climbing we came to the top and had a strong and steep downhill, just the kind of downhill to test your breaks abilities as you wind down the switch-backs. At the bottom you get to pass through a part of the Gamkaskloof which is absolutely breath-taking. We stayed in Die Meestershuis, a historic dwelling in which the teachers would reside during their stay as the local valley teacher. The narrative says to wait for an SMS concerning your accommodation in Gamkaskloof. DO NOT wait for this, call them and ensure you have it before moving otherwise I fear you won’t get it. Previously the organisers of the Freedom Trail / Challenge had an arrangement with the only local restaurant to provide meals. This is no longer the case so ensure you find out about your meals and lunch pack. Despite all the highs and lows, this is a spectacular day.

Ascent Today	Traveled Today
Ascent: 1544m	Time Traveled: 6hrs36min
Overall Trail
	Legend:  Yellow is today’s route Black is the overall route
Distance Traveled: 61.9km

Tags: Mountain Bike Trips by Admin
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The scenery has been awesome

At a stage when we started I wasn’t too sure about making it this far. I never hosted a thought of not returning to Cape Town on my mountain bike. The feeling of being halfway is great. At the same time my body hurts. Today my right knee seemed have decided it’s gone far enough. “I fear dear knee, you will not stop me, just slow me down”. Jaco has a mild cold / flu / throat problem which is healing well.Today was almost all downhill, it never felt so though. The Karoo is beautiful especially if you have time to take note of the smaller things. It’s a vast open area between two mountain ranges with the most common living thing being sheep. We did have some buck that got spooked and ran just ahead for quite some distance until we managed to pass them. Our accommodation for tonight is Dennehof Guest House, in Prince Albert.

Ascent Today	Traveled Today
Ascent: 186m	Time Traveled: 4hrs22min
Overall Trail
	Legend: Yellow is today’s route Black is the overall route
Distance Traveled: 67.2km

Tags: Mountain Bike Trips by Admin
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Sign Board to Where?

Due to a few pain related issues, today is to be another day for me to travel in something a bit more comfortable, the support vehicle. After a few delays with breakfast, things set under way with Jaco leaving at 08h00 and the support vehicle leaving later. We finally caught up with the steaming Jaco at about the 40km mark. For the better part of the day, the track was good and allowed for fast cycling with averages reaching 25km per hour and the weather also played with providing cool to cold weather conducive to good riding. A minor glitch was experienced due to paper not being kept up to date by the orgainsers. Thankfully the lady on whose farm we stayed happened to come driving by as we arrived and sorted everything out. Tonight’s accommodation is at Rondawel where, well, we stayed in rondawels (round hut like accommodations) and not at Visgat as per the narrative.

Ascent Today	Traveled Today
Ascent: 496m	Time Traveled: 3hrs12min
Overall Trail
	Legend:    Yellow is today’s route Black is the overall route
Distance Traveled: 49km

Tags: Mountain Bike Trips by Admin
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