Yesterday consisted of a 6 degrees Celsius start, 93 km’s of dirt, 7 springbok, a family of Dassies, 437 windmills, a total of 5 cars, 2 tortoises, a relentless Easterly wind and 2 rusty old wrecks in a ditch.
It was nipple
Windmills everywhere
Lots of nothing
Broken
The wreck of which I spoke
The road was in pretty good condition and there were only a few sections that were heavily corrugated. But it was tough my dudes; more mentally than anything. We decided to push through to Fraserburg instead of camping midway which doubled our distance for the day. We were in the saddle for close to 6 hours and it was a challenge of the mind to keep going once we were ahead of schedule. Overall we only descended about 200 meters on the entire ride meaning it was flat, flat and long. And it was this flatness that started messing with our heads. That and the incessant sound of the wind in our ears for 6 hours. By the end I was losing my rag a little and the last 20 km was a real slog. But we are here and again the people are amazing and have been incredible to put us up again.
Ronnel who runs Kliphuis BnB has taken us in and they she didn’t bat an eyelid when we arrived a day early, hooking us up with the most amazing accommodation. Not sure what it is about the BnB’s in these little towns but they spare no expense on the linen, facilities and other comforts. There are even rusks in a tin in the room! I am a bit of a rusk fiend so I am in heaven; been smashing those like a fat kid getting stuck into a cake (except I am probably getting skinnier rather than fat – burning calories at a serious rate I reckon).
There is not much going on in Fraserburg; Its a little like a ghost town and the cute tin coffee mugs and metallic windmill sounds that are harmless and almost quaint during the day take on quite a different and slightly evil persona in the pitch black of the night. We are the only ones staying here at the BnB and with ghost Karoo ghost stories told to us by Trudie at Sadawa fresh in the momories, Doug and I did a comprehensive job of freaking each other out last night.