Geoff Jones

Inveterate dabbler in business, travel, gadgets & life

Category: Biking

Biking Africa – Velddrif to Lamberts Bay

On my bike
On my bike – Thanks Kevin Large

I managed to get a £2 haircut at the hotel after breakfast and then stocked up with drink before setting out at 9am on the coast road. Just outside Velddrif  there was a lovely new thatched beach restaurant, Soverby Lapa, which I couldn’t resist taking a closer look 🙂 It was so gorgeous sitting on the deck with a cool ocean breeze. I could easily have stayed all day admiring the view & eating Malva pudding.

However, I had booked my b&b so kept on going past the rather attractive but all to twee estate at Slakkepas safe behind its gates & razor wire. Cycling on I came to a delightful farmstal, time for another drink and a chat with a van full of locals on a day out. One of them, Kevin Large, was apparently a photographer so I gave him my camera to get some action shots 🙂

I eventually came to the 500 foot climb where my front derailleur started to play up in not getting the smallest gear 🙁 there’s something to be said for the old fashioned change levers rather than these click things 🙁  followed by a lovely drop down into Elandsbaai.

Iron ore train
Iron ore train

I then followed the railway dirt track road for 20 or so miles a bit of a nightmare especially with the corrugated service and odd cars, trucks bombing past. However I did get to admire one of the iron ore trains about 2.5 miles long with 8 locos two of which are intermediates! pulling over 34,000 tons of iron ore!

Eventually I hit tarmac again in Lamberts Bay and quickly found the Sir Lambert’s Guest House and its yappy dog but Port in the room :-). Followed by a walk into town to get my fish & chips at Isabella’s on the Quayside in the wind which is now turning really cold in the evening at least 20 degrees!  The little island which for R40 you can walk to has apparently the highest density of gulls in the world 🙂

Strava made it 59.5 miles with 1597 feet of climbing at an average speed of over 11mph.

My pictures are here

Biking Africa – Bloubergstraand to Velddrif

A long straight R27
A long straight R27

After another bout of decision making on whether to use the N7 straight away or continue up the coast on the R27 and then take my chances on reconnecting with the N7 further North. I finally set of to get some breakfast in nearby Melkbossstrand after which I headed North on the dead straight R27 to Veldrdrif.

In August/September this becomes the flower route, ablaze with colour but for now just low lying scrub vegetation. Interesting to see Africa’s only nuclear power station producing 5% of South Africa’s electric in a small squat building. Then it was into an endless series of resurfacing for the next 50 miles. After the first long stretch I finally cracked the system and just biked along behind the barriers on the surface they were working on. A bit tarry maybe but a lot safer than having huge trucks squeeze past you on the traffic lane.

New mirror in action
New mirror in action

As the day progressed the wing became stronger filling my head with ideas of making a jacket that converted into a spinnaker since it was coming from the South and I was heading North 🙂

No habitations for 60 miles or so and only a couple of farmshops where I got to try out by new SnapScan app for auto paying at the till. It works a bit like Apple Pay but allows you to enter how much you want to pay. Pretty neat the lady says it’s getting a lot of use.

Finally I crossed the Berg River and found the Laaiplek Hotel right next to the fish processing unit on the rivers edge. Good dinner of hake & chips with a Greek salad.

The Etrex failed to generate a gpx today as it had decided to go into test mode! But Strava on the iPhone behaved today so Strava reckons I did 83.3 miles with all those rolling hills adding in 1813ft of climbing and an overall average speed of 12.2mph.

The pictures are here

 

Three weeks of biking stats in South Africa

According to my little Google spreadsheet I’ve been away from home 20 days & cycled for 14 of them covering 630 miles (1,008km) and 39,793 feet (12,128m) of vertical ascent 🙁 . Thus averaging 45 miles ((72km)  per cycling day and 2842 (866m) feet per biking day.Not bad coming up for 69 years old and lugging 120kg total weight around 🙂

Adze as usual made a lovely graphic from all my Garmin Etrex 20 traces:-

First 3 weeks in Africa
First 3 weeks in Africa

I still have 33 more potential riding days so at some point if I want to reach The Victoria Falls I shall have to start using alternative, faster, transport 🙁 Although if the wind keeps on like today who knows…

Day 15 Biking Africa – Cape Town to Bloubergstrand

A cycleway in South Africa
A cycleway in South Africa

After much humming and harring this morning I finally decided the best way of making a decision on where to go next was just to get on the bike! The owner of The Altona said Blouberg was very pleasant with a cycle path for most of the way! I quickly found a place to stay there on booking.com by the beach too and so I waved goodbye to Cape Town, although it would be fun to do The Argus on a real bike another year 🙂

Table mountain
Table mountain

A bit of a nightmare exiting Cape Town on the motorway system, especially navigating around the broken glass bottles either thrown from cars or at cars 🙁 and as usual at the entry slip roads. I made it to the R27 and then got blasted along with a tail wind so strong I had difficulty stopping the bike in places. It’s truly a gorgeous ride with magnificent views of Table Top mountain, Robben Island and all the local fine sandy beaches.

I quickly made the 14 miles to Bloubergstrand and the accommodation at Blouberg Place where the owner had emailed me to say that she wasn’t there but then  describing the secret hidey place for the key – very civilised and the room had a small barrel of biscuits 🙂

After a high velocity shower I walked up the road, admiring all the total glam houses and musing about their occupants admiring the view to Mandela’s prison from their terraces. I had a lovely salad & beer at the Ons Huisie restaurant which set me back a cool £5, getting expensive around here 🙂

The Strava is here and the days pics here