Rushing to 2011

The last month has flown past and there were three significant 'moments'.

It was the beginning and end of Nanowrimo - National Novel Writing Month. Would be authors from all over the world enter a frenzy of writing. The goal - 50 000 words in 30 days. South Africa had roughly 780 authors registered. I wrote 53000 words last year and this year, scrambled to 51000. My characters fortunately are more creative than me. Grabbing every spare moment to write puts every thing else under pressure.

Its the final run up to the 7th Sabie Experience mtb stage race and this month is always a wrestle with suppliers, budgets and late entries. We also through in the traditional pre ride where we give the routes the once over. This completed my training for the World Fun ride Champs as we like to call it. The 2nd largest time road cycle event in the world, the Momentum 94.7. Base I had in plenty but speed an intensity??? Not even my favourite friend, USN's Anabolic Nitro could maintain the headlong rush. I faded towards the end but thoroughly enjoyed owning the streets of Jozi for one day.

One other notable event was the arrival of my book on the Freedom Challenge's Race across South Africa. That was a proud moment to see that huge adventure in print.

Tomorrow is December! Then it is 2011.

Its all too fast!

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Busy, busy!

Its been a hectic couple of weeks but it ended with some great riding in Sabie.

Every year we host a pre ride for the four day Sabie Experience where we test the race routes for the event in December. This year we also had the Sabie Experience Lite route options.

I arrived earliesh on Thursday to do some admin and meet with the race office. Glenn, the race director for the Lite, also pulled in and the team assembled over dinner to run through the millions of details that make up the successful hosting of a stage race.

The weather was hot and dry and we headed off the next morning through town to tackle what would be Stage Two of the race. The banter was soon replaced with heavy breathing and cursing as the riders sweated their way up the first climb. And the group soon splintered all over the plantations.

I struggled with a hectic heart rate and worse than useless energy levels and eventually I suffered the ignomy of calling it a day and getting into the back up vehicle. As the temperatures soared there was a lot of bartering for my seat but I hung on for all I was worth. The upside was that I converted to riding the Lite routes which gave me some insight as to what these riders were in for.

Great decision. We were finished before the heat of the day kicked in and we had many hours of extra R&R before the others staggered back, hot, weary and thirsty.

The last day saw a quick shower as we were about to start but 5kms up the road it was dry and stayed that way until we started on a mean climb. Then it was a fine drizzle which kept us cool and hydrated. Our group was somewhat larger on this day with a lot of riders opting for the shorter option.  A hot shower and a snack brought three great days to an end.

The Sabie Experience remains one of the toughest events on the calendar and located on the edge of the escarpment means there is no respite from the climbing or the weather of that region. The Lite will also test riders who will have dramatically improved their riding when they complete these four days.

It comes down to mental tenacity. Why do something if its not a challenge.  We have to go out of our comfort zones to feel alive.

Do you agree?

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Stories from the Trail : Burgersfort Bo!

It was back to Burgersfort to see if we could compress day two down to a manageable distance. Doug, Glenn and I were lucky to get accommodation at Kusile Guest House - not only for the stunning rooms but also for back up allowing us to ride untried and untested trail.

Kudos to the people of Burgersfort for the help and support. It's a scorchingly hot town but the warmth of the peoples hearts more than match the searing temperatures. Let me elaborate.

One of the things I have enjoyed the most about putting this trail together is the detective work. One of my contacts in Burgersfort works on the mines - JohanR - and we've had many a conversation on the phone, me on Google Earth while I ply him with questions on the various route options.

He had mentioned a more direct option to Burgersfort from where we first meet the Oliphants River and I could find most of it on Google Earth but there was a significant gap. Unfortunately, we were still destined not to meet but he gave me the first names of some local quad bikers who he thought knew the route. My job was to track them down - no surname, no telephone numbers but the name of a water project for the local communities and mines.

I love the internet.

It took me a while but I found them. JohanE was the man for the job. He and his fellow quadbikers had cleaned up an old and forgotten track through to Penge. We made an arrangement to meet early on Saturday morning but late on the Friday evening, he phoned to say he had gone out, ridden the route and got me a GPS track log! He mailed it through and we were in business.

Pity about getting lost trying to get to his house (which we had ridden past a month ago). This included getting stuck at the gate at Havercraft Mine and phoning the Mine Engineer to get permission to go through. He kindly arranged an escort and eventually, several hours late, we arrived at the start of the ride.
But this was not all.

Driekie and Pieter were our hosts at Kusile and when I asked them if they knew of someone who could drive our vehicle to the start to drop us off, Pieter immediately volunteered. He was quite used to being a second as Driekie is an avid cyclist. Driekie then bravely decided to ride with these oddball cyclists who had no idea of where they going other than a vaguely formulated plan from Google Earth and hearsay. JayBee and Madeleen also accompanied us to the start but ran out of time to ride.


Doug had entered all the route options onto his GPS, plotted them on a map and we were good to go with instructions to Pieter to meet us in Penge.

What followed was inspiring. Despite the dried out scrub and thorn bushes, we loved this section. It was challenging and rewarding and when we popped out on the banks of the Oliphants River again, we were treated to a fast ride under a canopy of huge trees all the way to Penge.

Driekie wisely bailed as this had been the only section that was a logged route. And for the next hour we thrashed through thorn bushes, left blood and fabric on the thorn trees but eventually found the old road we were looking for. I'll not describe this, rather leaving it as a surprise for those who join us on the Trail next year.

We popped out for a short 4km section on tar before peeling off onto a dirt road into a village called many names but the one I remember is Sonskyn. A short stop at a spaza shop resulted in warm coke, lemon cream biscuits, tiny Bar Ones and crisps and then we were on our way again.

At the end of the road (we knew it would run out - promise) we met an extremely helpful lady who encouraged us to follow the rocky path down the hill which, she assured us, would take us to our next village on our map. Rocky it was and my arms were burning from holding on.

All of a sudden, we intersected with the proverbial highway of single track and we bombed down the hill whooping with delight. We figured that this was a track cleared for dragging firewood. We'll just have to figure out where it starts.

Then it was a magical ride through villages, wading across the Steelpoort River, chatting to locals, admiring vegetable gardens and finally we intersected with a tar road. We hadplanned to "cut the corner" so we looked for the first or any path to the left and then took a tiger line towards a lone hill which we had identified from Google Earth. There were so many footpaths, goat tracks and the odd car track that we split up and were scatted all over the thorn scrub.

Glenn and I reached the village first and were treated to booming music out of a speaker the size of a normal fridge. As we stopped to check tires, we were accosted by a villager who wanted help with setting up his DSTV satellite dish. Unfortunately, neither Glenn nor I had the requisite skills to help.

Driekie phoned to check we were alright and agreed to collect us at the local fire station. The three of us regrouped at the railway line and headed back down the road to meet them and be treated to two massive homemade hamburgers each. Oh, there was dessert too.

The next day was hotter and we had a stop/start to the day with puncture and tire problems. Eventually we were on the jeep track next to the railway line and climbing to Ohrigstad. Pieter and Driekie would meet us at the top and we would treat them to lunch.

It was a hot climb and we were forced to take shelter in the railway culvert for a short break. We were also treated to sight of the very long goods train as it chugged down the hill.

As we crested the saddle, there was the vehicle and our great seconds with cold cokes and ice and water. It was a fast 12km to Ohrigstad from there - faster than we thought and we ended up at the only pub/restaurant in the village for a well earned lunch.


We were then driven home to pack and head home.

The people of Burgersfort hardly knew us but reached out and helped us achieve more than we could have otherwise. Their kindness and generosity was amazing and I for one, can't wait to see them all again when the Trail launches in March next year.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Stories from the Trail : Food, Glorious Food!

By Derek aka Gadget

So I’m apparently the one that’s best placed to comment about our great mtb eating out adventure which started in Haenertsberg’s Iron Crown Pub with carbo loading draft beers and ended at Swaziland's Bulembu Country Hotel with ‘serious’ milkshakes @ a mere R12 a pop excl GST !

Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that whenever anyone was looking my way I had a bacon, egg & cheese sammie in my mouth or just because I relate most of my mountain biking adventures in terms of the catering that was provided.

Well, no mountain biking adventure of note is complete if it can’t sustain its epic riders, ‘vakansie perde’ and those breakfast riding, weekend guru’s that reside somewhere in between.

We had a spectacular adventure and the support along the way ensured we were more than well catered for. You can’t exactly ride for six days in a row through some of the country’s biggest mountain ranges without food now can you ? Our hosts at all the overnight stops were well briefed on what to expect from a pack of ravenous mountain bikers and boy did they step up...

Breakfasts usually included porridge or cereals, yogurts, fruit juices along with significant quantities of deliciously crispy bacon, sausages, farm fried sunnyside eggs, toast and jams with the regular coffee & tea’s etc.

We even had freshly baked chocolate muffins one morning – Wow ! Of course not everyone can ride straight up a mountain on such a big breakfast so it’s always a good idea to make sammies for second breakfast. Ok, so I make two and maybe a muffin too...Strewth, you never know what might befall you up in those mountains - you might actually have to share one !

We were always provided with equally delicious lunch packs mostly carried in the backup vehicles which met us around halfway every day. These lunch ‘packs’ ranged from platters of sammies to personalised boxed lunches of frikkadels, boiled egg, cold salty roast tatties, banana, apple, muffin, selected fruit juices & even a chokkie ! No shortage of carbs & protein - is there?


So what about afternoon tea and dinner ? Well afternoon tea usually coincided with our daily finishes. Yes we actually rode quite hard despite all the royal catering and frequent water stops along the way. Temperatures soared to above 40*C on a number of big riding days so hydration was critical. Here our backup vehicles played a crucial role and provided ice cold cokes, fruit juices and fresh water. When no backup vehicle was around, Spaza shops worked equally well.

A most memorable spaza stop was around midday when a group of us were craving an ice cold coke after traversing a mountain range and ending up in the 42*C Olifants river valley. The lovely Ester Maboqwani (“I’m so heppy”) had these on hand and we each consumed a litre and more.

Our most memorable afternoon tea must be the one we had at Kaapsehoop. We started the day riding out of a valley near Long Tom pass and ended it riding up a 23km swelteringly hot 42*C climb to Kaapsehoop.

Our guide for the day, Dennis, promised us that there were the best sweet or savoury pancakes ever at the top of the climb and boy was he right !!! The owners spaniel named ‘Lieflap’ thought so too....

You might think that after all this feasting every day that dinner was a lazy underrated affair.  Well you’d be dead wrong! How about Borsht with frozen vodka for starters, Maranga chicken & basmati rice served with sides of fresh garden salad, spicy beans and pickled jalapeno chillies rounded off with crème caramel topped with pomegranate and chocolate ! All this served on a silver dinner service & accompanied by fine white wines and copious snores for the rest of the night in the trout bungalow next to a burbling brook...

Or how about a piping hot choice of chicken or beef lasagne with fresh garden salad or beef potjie and rice. At Queens Rose we were treated to smoked ham & banana mayo starters with crisply roasted farm chicken, roast potatoes, rice & gravy, cinnamon & sugar pumpkin fritters topped off with a hot brandy & custard tart....

And last but not least there are always the foodie oddities: Ben with a white bread & Bar One sammie, Gadget picking fresh tea for the pot at Senteeko and poor Dennis desperately trying to revive a hot banana that rode 30km sandwiched between his backpack and riding shirt...

I’ve since joined a therapy group for recovering mountain biking foodie’s if anyone is interested. Most meetings start thus: “Hi my name is Gadget and I ate way too much food on that mountain biking adventure ride...

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Stories from the trail continued : View from the back

As the weeks roll on, we still have memories of the great week of riding from Magoebaskloof to Swaziland.  Our medic, Glenn (don't call me unless you are unconscious or not breathing), had a different view:

Doug, Fiona and I got together on the Wednesday evening for a preview of the proposed route on 1:50 000 maps as well as Google Earth. The proposed route was thorough and once we had established the routes for each day, the logs were downloaded to the gps and we were ready to go.

DAY 1- TRAVELING TO HAERNERTSBERG

Met with Fiona and the rest of the cycling party on Saturday morning north of Pretoria. The group travelling to Heanertsberg consisted of two vehicles, A medical vehicle (myself) and a support vehicle. Nine of us travelled up arriving in Haenertsberg in the early afternoon. We were booked in at Lamei Lodge, a wonderful off the beaten track overnight stop surrounded by plantations. The rest of the afternoon was spent in the little town wandering around their spring festival. The group that would be doing the mountain bike route were all battle hardened veterans of the sport and everybody was very comfortable with each other and got on well. It has to be said that Fiona picked the overnight stops well as the food at each and every place, although different each time, was truly amazing.

DAY 2 – STAGE 1- HAERNERTSBERG TO MAKUTSI

Up at 5 am. Breakfast at 6 am. On the road at 6:30 heading for Makutsi camp in the Legalameetse Nature Reserve.  We weren't sure whether the vehicle would be allowed through at Wolkberg onto the Makutsi trail so the medical vehicle circumnavigated this region. It was a 100 km round route to the Legalameetse Nature Reserve’s main entrance and another rocky drive to meet up with the group for lunch at the bottom of Orrie Baragwanath Pass. It was a difficult and tough route to navigate as the route took us through stunning sections of mountain ravine along sheer cliff edges. At this point the clutch on the air conditioning compressor decided to pack up so no more air con. Took us all of twelve hours to complete the route.

DAY 3 – STAGE 2 – MAKUTSI TO CRYSTAL SPRINGS

On the road +/- 6:30 am heading for Crystal Springs near Sabie. First two hours was extreme 4x4ing as I wound my way through a very narrow ravine crossing the same river 15 or 16 times and then a steep climb up out through some nice 30 degree angle rutted tracks. Just the thing to do to get your blood pumping early in the morning. I was then sent on a reconnaissance mission to recce a possible alternative route down the mountain to the Olifants river. Turns out the cyclists went the long way around and followed my tracks down the mountain. By midday I was convinced I had lost the group and I was now in a small rural village and there was only one way out – southwest towards Burgersfort. Nobody spoke English or Afrikaans so after searching the area for tyre tracks and trying out various amusing styles of animated sign language with the locals, I figured I had come out ahead of the group. I decided it was time for coffee. While indulging my favourite passion under a huge Indaba tree, the group caught up with me, in straggled bunches. They had clearly had a physically testing ride so far.

Refreshed we set off for Burgersfort and beyond to my biggest challenge for the trip - crossing the Oliphants River. With no obvious road and no other vehicle to pull me out if I got in too deep, I approached it with some trepidation. and walked back and forth for half an hour looking for a spot where I wouldn’t leave the undercarriage behind. After a few rather enthusiastic locals waded through to prove the depth and stability of the soil, I decided on a spot. I was half way through when I came up onto a silt bank which didn’t like the weight of my car and decided to give way. I bogged down and thought for one frightful moment
that I was in for a two kilometre hike to the Alverton mine ahead to get a front end loader to come and pull me out. The cyclists of course had all scurried on ahead so no help from them. Aaaah  - the wonders of diff lock combined with low range and really good mud terrain tyres (no better combination) I hit the diff lock and dropped into low range and literally ploughed my way through, up and out the other side.

The group had split to try different routes up a valley and I was to follow the more tricky route but there was absolutely no way a vehicle could get through. I used the mine road to drive the six kilometres
to the top of the valley. I spent over an hour searching for the explorers before leaving to drop the lunch packs off with the rest who had opted for the district road. Temperatures were extreme (well above 40C) and distances far for that day.

Eventually cell signal kicked in and I got a message from Fiona to say that they had also turned back out of the valley and were on the same route as the rest. It was already nearing 3pm so Fiona rode with me to Burgersfort for a meeting. The group was exhausted so loaded up in Burgersfort and drove to Crystal Springs arriving around 6pm. Great rooms and the food and beer wasn’t bad either.

DAY 4 – STAGE 3 – CRYSTAL SPRINGS TO GUNYATOO LODGE

Day 4 was a leisurely ride for the riders, Up at 6:00 am. Breakfast 6:30 am. At the main gate and cycling by 7:15. Dennis Lawrie had joined our merry little group the night before to guide us through the next two days. This gave me the opportunity to sleep late and only get up at 7:30 am. Well not quite, my early body clock decided today was no different. I had to meet the riders at Misty Mountain at 12:30 pm where the gps tracks exited the forestry plantations and ride the remainder of the route with them.

I checked out Pilgrims Rest before heading to Sabie for a well earned cup of coffee and a waffle. (one of the unfortunate perks of this kind of special event work).  While waiting for the riders, a branch from a Bluegum tree detached itself about fifteen metres above my vehicle and paid my bonnet a visit depositing two lovely prize dents that I really didn't require.  We arrived at about 2 pm at Gunyatoo Lodge - a pristine trout farm complete with dams, hatchery and lovely stone and timber accommodation.  We rounded the day off sitting around a big table having dinner and chatting. A couple of penalty drinks were also issued to team members.

DAY 5 – STAGE 4 – GUNYATOO LODGE TO KAAPSEHOOP

Up at 5am. Breakfast at 6am. On the trail by 6:30 am. The cyclists were in for an easy days ride and kept mostly to private and state owned timber plantations. It was an easy wind along plantation roads, marsh land until we arrived in Kaapsehoop. More beer and waffles for lunch and off to the local backpackers accommodation where we would be staying for the night.  I took a two hour hike up onto the escarpment where I had a breath taking view down into the lowveld.

Kaapsehoop was established in the 1880’s as a result of the gold rush and is a most beautiful little town complete with original mine managers house and jail that has been well preserved. The rock formations on the way up to the escarpment and the sheer 1000 foot drop off’s on the escarpment into the lowveld made this a stunning place to overnight.

DAY 6 – STAGE 5 – KAAPSEHOOP TO QUEENS ROSE

Another relatively short day, +/- 50 kilometres. Up at 5:30 am. Breakfast at 6:30am. We set off around 7am. A new member of the team joined us the night before, Glenn Harrison, a well known extreme mountain
biker holding the record for the fastest time to finish the freedom challenge on a single speed mountain bike. Glenn was our guide for the next two days as he is local from Waterval Boven. We started on the edge of the escarpment at a lookout point and then made our way along the escarpment ridge. 

We ran out of driveable road and had to do a bit of bundu bashing and vehicle trailblazing. The riders were waiting for us at a series of steep sand road switch backs that dropped us down into the lowveld again. The rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent traversing tea plantations, pine and bluegum forest. We arrived at Queens Rose Youth centre around 2 pm for our penultimate night. The centre is no longer used as a youth centre but is used as an overnight stop for hikers. It was quiet remote and reminded me of veldschool. Wim and Mari who were our host for the night splashed out a dinner fit for kings. Off to bed early.

DAY 7 – STAGE 6 – QUEENS ROSE TO BULEMBU (SWAZILAND)

A long day to finish the route. Up at 5 am. Breakfast at 6am. Set off for Bulembu at around 6:30 am. We followed the cyclists for the first 5 kilometres down through plantations and natural forest with a beautiful
waterfall cascading down the mountain side until we where once again forced by forestry regulations to circumnavigate and wait for the riders on the (R40) road, 25 kilometres from the Swazi border.

This meant a huge route east to Barberton where we were forced again to have coffee and waffles at a lovely little English tea garden right in the centre of town. After a Fuel and toilet stop we headed up the very steep winding mountain pass along the R40 over the mountains to Swaziland. We arrived at our co-ordinates well before the cyclists and spent the next hour and a half wondering around the hillside taking photo’s of the old cable way that was abandoned which used to transport asbestos into South Africa and coal back out.
Eventually the guys arrived and we all had a fantastically packed lunch once again courtesy of Wim and Mari. The last 25 kilometres where to be done on tar road in absolute baking conditions and our little procession moved along slowly. Ben, however, could not contain his excitement at seeing his wife again and shot off into the distance not to be seen again until we actually arrived at the Bulembu Lodge in Swaziland. The border post was really friendly and I even entered Swaziland without having to fill out a customs form for the car (had to pay the R50.00 though). Good thing I came back out through the same relaxed border post the following morning.

The last two kilometres were all down hill into what seemed at first a ghost town. Bulembu is a mining town that was established here in the forties when asbestos was discovered. It flourished during the fifties, sixties and seventies. Then in the Eighties it fell on hard times as South Africa went through its changes eventually closing down in 1992. It opened for a short period again in the late nineties but eventually went into bankruptcy under the new ownership and closed around 2002. A couple of years ago it was bought up by a Canadian welfare organisation and was converted into an orphanage aiming at catering for 2000 orphans by 2020.

When you arrive you feel like you have stepped back in time to the fifties. It still has the original cinema at the old exclusive mine members club complete with original cinema seats and movie projectors. In it’s heyday, the mine housed more than 600 families and came complete with its own first world hospital and very own power station. I spent the afternoon exploring the old buildings and chatting to some of the old residents who were there for a reunion, about the history of the place. I had one small cut knee to attend to as Ben had fallen off on the initial descent out of Queens Rose in the morning and had decided now was the time for TLC. We had a wonderful dinner at the Lodge in the evening and later we sat around a huge steel brazier obviously salvaged from the old mine with a roaring fire and some of those old locals I mentioned above playing the guitar and singing. Sleep was wonderful at the end of such a long and busy trip.

DAY 8 – RETURN TRIP TO JOHANNESBURG

We all agreed to a late start Saturday morning. Breakfast at 7:30. Didnt help, I was still up at 5 am. (Damn fresh air and beautiful countryside to blame) A great continental breakfast was laid on for us and eventually the vehicles were packed and everyone was set for the return trip. We reluctantly crossed back into South Africa although wishing we could all have just kept on going. We all arrived home late Saturday afternoon in Pretoria where we said our final goodbye’s and I arrived home around 6 pm.

Epilogue

I didn’t realise at the start of the trip, just what beautiful countryside I would be driving through. I have never actually been up to the North West part of South Africa which is strange as I have been all over the rest of the world including Africa. Sections of the trail follow the renowned “African Ivory” 4x4 trail which in itself is magnificent. More importantly I soon realised that large parts of the route we where following are not open to the public and very few people other than hikers get to appreciate it. Thanks to Fiona’s drive and determination, cyclists will now have this opportunity too.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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500kms of mountain biking helps your running

Its only a week since we've been back in the big smoke and its been a flurry of race reports, write ups and round ups of our ride.  We have decided to re-christen it but that is for another time (when we've finally decided).

The problem we're all experiencing is loads of flash back and an extraordinary amount of time spent sifting through photos and reliving the week.

In July, I ran the Hout Bay Trail run and have been hankering for more and finally, the trail running series has come to Gauteng.  I entered the 12km long course at Hennops and went hunting for my amazing muti - USN's anabolic nitro.

I run maybe 2-3 times per week, not a lot and its been a very long time since I ran anything over 10k - even on the road.  But I dragged the Garden Godmother along with me so that I could suffer with someone else.

A last gasp search the day before netted me some sachets of the energy drink and I felt confident that I would be ok.  Amazing what strange beliefs we hang on to.  I had convinced GG that it would help her too seeing the last time she ran 12km was part of the 90km marathon called the Comrades in May.

So nervously yabbering non-stop, we headed out to the venue which was a pretty shaded spot next to the Hennops river.  We glugged the bitter tasting concoction convincing ourselves that the worse it tasted, the better it was and then we were off.

We started on a country road which wound around for about a km before hitting a meander next to the river. With this loop over, we set out in earnest on some dusty single track heading back upstream and in short time, we were out in the open with the towers of Pelindaba looming in front of us.

I walked the first climb, not wanting to blow too early and then settled into a reasonably rhythmic jog to the base of the big climb at 6km.  So far, so good.  This climb was about 1k and it was a hike up over rocks and around huge aloes.  There was a lot of chatting and cameraderie here as no one could go faster than the next and my legs burnt somewhat. I was fully expecting the jelly to set in at the top but no, we were off again at a good clip and my legs felt fine.

My biggest problem was my frozen water which hadn't defrosted as quickly as I thought so I got a few drops every now and then.  (Several hours later and its still ice cold - won't make that mistake again).  The trick is to stay focused as even the smallest loss of concentration can result in damage and that Pelindaba rock is extremely sharp.

All of a sudden, we joined the short course and I glanced at my watch - 12km done already.  I was surprised at how quickly it had gone.  We dropped down to a rickety cable bridge over the river and we could hear the announcer getting closer.

I still felt remarkably strong and hadn't faded at all - just a tad thirsty.

I finished in a clump of long and short course runners and it was over.  It was the longest and shortest run I had done in a long time.  Although the final distance was somewhere between 12,5 and 13km, it felt like minutes since I had started.  Time freezes with the joy of running on trails and focusing on the minutiae of placing your feet every step of the way.

So where do the 500kms of riding come in?  Somehow, to my embarrassment, I won my category.  As an average and under trained runner, this was completely unexpected. 

So I am claiming the riding and the muti as my secret to success.

GG ran in a short while later beaming and had also found that her stamina had not waned over the course so she's off to invest in new trail shoes and more sachets.  We're probably going to can the road running race next week in favour of another trail run.

The bug has bitten.

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More visual stories

The latter days of the tour...

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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The last day

We had thought that there may be a possibility of combining the last two days but at the end, it was a no go. It was a great ride but with plenty of climbing and always, lots of descending.

We left Queens Rose and had a detour past the Kupid Falls. We started with a 10km descent into the indigenous valley. Ben and Derek went farming and left some skin in the donga but it was minor.

Then we joined onto the Barberton Classic route for a long climb out the valley which was superb. When I did that race many years ago, it wasn't that nice. This time around, I really enjoyed it.

It wasn't the end of the climbing by any means and we totalled over 1600m of ascent in about 65km.  But what great passes and valleys. the mountains in this area are packed closely together and the valleys are extremely deep.

We eventually met up with our vehicles for lunch and Wim and Marie had gone ballistic. Two packs containing juice, bananas, apples, bar ones, sandwiches, meatballs and a boiled egg.  We needed to be riding 120km to deserve all of that.

The next 20km were on a new tar road to the border post at Josefsdal.  It was "undulating" but the different surface allowed us a good rhythm despite it being so hot.

All of a sudden, it was 1km to the border post and the tour was effectively over. A few formalities and we were descending the final 2km to Bulembu - an old mining town that is being converted into a self sustaining entity to support some of the 2000 orphans in Swaziland.

We were accommodated in one of the refurbished mining houses and ironically, we met the man who used to live in the house when the mine was in its heyday.  There was a group of ex residents who were having a reunion at the same time as our visit.

What a great ride and a fab group of riders.  We had fun all the way.

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One day to go

Back in the land of connectivity - and its a shame.

There is something very magical about being away from technology and its inherent demands. But it does mean that the blog is behind.  We're now at Bulembu just inside the Swaziland border and our recce is over.  It seems really quick now but a couple of days ago, it was a different picture.

Last communication was at Kaapsehoop which was at a high point. We had slogged to get there but everyone agreed that the climb wasn't as bad as it could have been. We're still looking at alternatives there.
 
We were well treated at the backpackers and without fail, the meals and packed lunches have been amazing.
Then it was on to Queens Rose - a hiking and youth centre. It was only about 52km and somehow, we all slowed down and spun the time out. No one was in a rush to arrive so we ambled along, taking photographs, picking tea and in no mood to rush.

We had been joined by Glenn who kindly scouted a portage on the day we arrived at Kaapsehoop and prevened us from having to explore that as an option. What he replaced it with was sublime. Switch backs that dropped us steeply into the valley before we swung around towards the overgrown tea plantation. Apparently, they are looking at re-working the plantation which would be great. Its a stunning little valley tucked away.

We climbed out the valley on a great track and then parked off for lunch with our support vehicles. So we stopped a lot and ate a lot but this is touring - riding for the moment, not the end line.

Next was a bit of exploring and we found a marvellous direct route parallel to a watercourse which brought us out on the exact road to our destination. Half the group went haring off in another direction and missed the experience of mud on tires. (It was the first mud we had seen the whole trip).

We arrived at Queens Rose to a warm welcome form Wim and Marie who manage the trail.  Our bikes were washed by one of their staff, there were lots of hot showers and tea and coffee on tap. Just as well, as the support vehicle with all our kit in it, went awol.  He had ducked into Barberton but couldnt find his way to our gate even with a GPS.  Sometimes, good old fashioned navigation is best.  He eventually arrived with our (by now) melted ice creams.

Dinner was, as Glenn described it, a real mountain bikers meal.  Mounds of crisy chicken, roast potatoes, pumpkin fitters, veges, rice and gravy.  This was after a starter and then they still served dessert - malva pudding and custard. We ate fit to burst.

The next morning, they sent us off in fine fashion with a full breakfast - the whole nine yards.


We were off the Bulembu, Swaziland and it was the last day.

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