Saturday 16 February 2013

Day 3 of the Spine

Today was a ride from Thohoyandou to Sunland Farm, home of the Baobab tree with a pub in it, again it was a double up as far as the planned route is concerned. We navigated South of Fig Tree, trying to find the last traffic light, which had us wondering how we would know it was the last one, however we eventually found it and turned left and rode through endless villages surprising all the locals who were up at that time in the morning. We crossed a couple of rivers and then it started to rain, and did it come down, after yesterdays heat it was a total contrast of wet and cold. After about 40 km the sun returned and the humidity kicked in, we seem to be having all seasons on this trip. We arrived at Middle Letaba resort and decided that we have had enough of tar road for now and jumped into the vehicle and headed to Sunland farm. The taxis and cars do not care that you are a cyclist here and get a little to close for comfort, so we decided instead of swearing at them we would go for a beer. On arrival at Sunland we managed to clean out the fridge of all the beer during the course of the afternoon and retire for a little siesta. Tomorrow is a short day and we have been told that the temperature will be 36c plus so we will start early and try to get finished before it gets to hot again. The ride so far has had its odd navigational issue, and for anyone planning to ride this route remember to bring a compass, the GPS is a great help, the maps from the book are adequate, you need to bring your sense of adventure and direction, do not just rely on the books narrative as place, streets, and people change. The local people do not understand that you want to get somewhere by riding through the bush and will try to send you by way of the road, can not blame them its not often that they see strange people in lycra riding bikes.

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