Country Number 19 - Its nearly over!

James checking in after a bout of radio silence: We have just spent a
fantastic few days in the Cederberg mountains resting up the legs a
bit. Isobel came up from Cape Town (seeing her was absolutely
brilliant!) and we had a great time exploring the area,swimming in the
rock pools and eating some amazing South African fare, braai vibes! We
stayed at an awesome place called Alfa Excelsior (Connie and Lizzie)
and would definitely recommend it!

The last 1300km from Windhoek has been quite varied. The Namibian
section was relatively flat, fast thanks to a tailwind and had some
great campsites (not official ones...we became experts at fence
hopping with fully loaded bikes). Being the rainy season we had a few
wet afternoons with one hectic wind storm that prevented us from
pitching our tent. We just sat there huddled behind our bikes waiting
for the wind to cease. When it did we got the tent up and then the
heavens opened. We got the soap out and had a damn good wash! The last
100km to the Orange River and the SA border was not fun tough. The
tail wind became an awful headwind and the gradient increased
significantly. We thought it would be downhill all the way to the
river and even those rare down hills that we did come across required
pedalling just to get down them. We got to the river though without
losing our sense of humour and were welcomed by the Noordoewer Engen
Service Station. An oasis in a sweltering landscape of rock and sand.
We just had to have some milkshakes! Wimpy milkshakes of course. We
spent quite a while enjoying the air conditioning before cycling the
last few kays to the SA border, country number 19! Border formalities
were easy although I was ticked off for taking a photo in immigration.
Thought I would try my luck. Luckily my camera was not confiscated. We
crossed into SA with mixed emotions. Excited because we were back home
and would be seeing friends and loved soon, but also quite sad because
this big adventure was coming to an end although the thought of not
having to live out of panniers was a happy prospect. We were quite
cross that there was not a Welcome to South Africa sign!

We had been gobbling up the miles of late and had quite a few spare
days in the bag, denoted REST days, before our proposed arrival in
Cape Town. So we elected to take a rest day at a camp on the Orange
River called Aquacade. Luckily we did as the next four days proved to
be incredibly tough both mentallly and physically and rested legs were
needed. After lounging in the river and sipping Hansas we made our way
south fighting through the ever present headwind and up and over the
mountains of the Northern and Western Cape on the N7. Each day we
cursed the terrain and hope that the wind would change. It never did.
Still wind aside the scenery was amazing and the shops even more
amazing. We had a feast every night. We were told we came during the
wrong time of the year, the flowers were not out yet and it was very
hot. Still we spent some great nights camping in Springbok, Garies
(they really need to sort out their campsite), Vanrhynsdorp and
finally Clanwilliam. Just south of Vanrhynsdorp we decided to take the
old wagon road to Cape Town, an initially nice dirt road that turned
into a corrugated and sandy jeep track. Not ideal but it did afford us
a great swim in the Boelhoek Dam to rinse the dust off.

We are at Clanwilliam Dam tonight. Our ride today was really short, an
awesome descent of Parkhuis Pass, a beast of a pass we cycled up on
Friday to get to Alpha Excelsior. We continue our ride to Cape Town
tomorrow morning although we would both prefer to sit back and sip
some good local wine! Rather than heading straight down the N7 to Cape
Town we have decided to head to the West Coast tomorrow with our first
stop being Elandsbaai (for those non saffas, a bay named after a large
antelope...) Then, taking it really easy for a change, we will wind
our way down the coast via Langebaan to finish up at Cape Point (the
carpark at the restaurant/coffee shop thingy - I have never been
there!) on 31 March at 2pm. Well that's the theory at least! So if
you have a spare moment and want to have a giggle at these two crusty
cyclists, whip out your wild card and pop on down on Saturday. You can
test ride our bikes if you want!

The Big Ride - Africa is nearly finished! Neither of us can believe
it! Next adventure?