Well. Here we are by the grace of what’s left of our sense of humour. What a “rest” day. Supposedly the second easiest day of the CPT turned nasty courtesy of the weather. About 20 minutes before the gun the first rain squall came through and set the tone for the day. Fortunately the wind was mostly from behind, blowing us along nicely. Apart, naturally, for the last 20km or so when the wheels came off. And of course the rain stings whichever direction the wind comes from.

The start at Oakdale high – Riversdale

Out of Riversdale up into the mountains along some farm roads with a tricky descent to district road. That descent rated 8 to 10 on the stitches scale. A bit of loose rock on a steep decline behind a struggling motorbike. He made it down but not me. My story is that he was too slow and I’m sticking to it. Thought I got away with it but the handy medic pointed out the blood running down my shin. Didn’t even realize! A quick bit of gauze and a round of Elastoplast with promises to go for stitches later saw me on my way. From a cycling point of view it is a non-injury so good news there! Two gashes in the soft tissue just below the knee, now stitched with about 6-8 in one and 4-6 in the other.

Not this descent!

Now the real problem was some innocuous damage to the bike. In the tumble the hydraulic hose for the fork lock out was damaged, leaking all the fluid. That left the fork in locked out mode. Not a great idea for the superb technical route up into the higher mountains!

Following a rough jeep track – really rough – we climbed up into the most awesome series of ridges, spurs, valleys and kloofs. With the wet weather the fynbos was positively glowing. Impossible to describe the scale of it all. Made us realize how remote we really were. With the rigid fork descended the technical track was more than exciting. And tough on the hands and arms. Forget the legs – massage the hands!

The occasional hill today

And then finally the character building part if the day – 50km or so along rolling – as ever – district roads. Along with the gale force wind it required a bit of vasbyt. 6h24m in all.

How strong was the wind? Well we are not in tents tonight. They were mostly blown down or away while they were being pitched. They are generally pitched by the kids from the school where we overnight and apparently they had a bit of a challenge! So we are safely houses in the classrooms – I believe I am in the grade 7 home room. Lucky to have missed the Maths room!

Weird hats in these parts

Tomorrow is officially the easiest day down to Mosselbay. One snag – we go through the Gondwana nature reserve with 7 free roaming lions?? Apparently we should ride in groups to reduce our chance of being taken by one – statistically at least!! Ot’s wing talked up big time. Hope to let you know how it goes tomorrow night. Gulp.