31 March 2010 Gordons Bay to Malmesbury

And guess what, rest days are over, so the wind blows again!!! At least this time it was from behind.

I hit the road just before 8am and had to battle into a head wind for the first 4km. Loose gravel as well, but once I hit the tar, things went well and I was doing over 40km/h, competing with the early morning car traffic.

Once I got onto the road going from the Strand to the Somerset Mall, I heard a serious creaking sound coming from the bottom bracket (bearings between the two pedals) and since I will be leaving "civilisation" now, I thought it best to pop into the bicycle shop along the way. They replaced my BB and I decided to buy a new wireless speedo since my GPS was also acting up. (Maybe I should have given my equipment another rest day?!) I had forgotten that I had my credit card on the handle bar pannier, and so I waited for Thys and Nerina to bring my wallet. This meant that I only got going again at around 11am (after doing only 17 of the 97 km I had to do for the day)

The long climb out of Somerset West was not nearly as bad as I expected and I was on my way to Stellenbosch soon. What a beautiful and scenic ride. The majestic mountains as a back drop with some of the vineyards starting to show autumn colours. Wow, what a fantastic country!

As I cycled through Stellenbosch, I caught up with T & N at a red traffic light and we agreed to stop for coffee somewhere outside Stellenbosch. We ended up at a new coffee shop / restaurant about 15 km out of town where I had freshly squeezed orange juice (to die for). The wind had dropped significantly and was still coming from behind. My wheels were singing on the tar and I had a song in my heart (I put on two new, semi-slick tyres the day before - what a difference from cycling on corrugated dirt roads!)

Road conditions were good and apart from some heavy traffic earlier in the day between G Bay and Stellenbosch, I had an easy ride.

I got to Malmesbury with an average speed of 21.3km/h (the fastest for this trip so far) after doing 97.2km. The caravan park is okay'ish, but we have rowdy neighbours again. I am sure they will settle down so that we can have a well deserved rest.

Tomorrow we will be off to Yzerfontein, via Darling. We are planning a lunch stop at Evita se Perron in Darling. The total distance for the day will be around 60km, so there is no need to rush. T & N will probably head back to G Bay first to pick up some luggage they left behind.

And oh, by the way, I had my 4th puncture today, just after I arrived at the campsite! (I also had a flat wheel after arriving at Peter and Desireé's place in Gordon's Bay - in both cases picking up thorns at my point of arrival - amazing!) This after putting new tubes in the tyres yesterday - I did however not put slime in the tyres - this was remedied immediately when I patched the leak!

Cheers then, 'till tomorrow. Thanks for all your support along the way - it is always good to hear from you.