When CJ says it’s all downhill, eyes roll as we know it’s going to be another long hard climb. Truth be told today wasn’t going to be any different. Or was it…..
Day 19. Leaving the quaint Finchley farm, we head south east downhill across the Swartberg Mountain range. Yes downhill. Yay for CJ. A cool chilly morning that saw the pace upped by Deidre and Dave guiding the badger to bag 109km cycle with a mere 689m of climbing. As we traverse the mountain range crossing into the Western Cape, leaving behind the Karoo the outback of South Africa. This was made evident by crossing the Klaarstroom river, “finished stream” for the non SAFFAS.
Soaring into Meijers Rust in De Rust, was a breeze while Dave and Deidre play slalom down Meiringspoort Pass. (Don’t try this at home). In fact they were playing Slalom since this morning, having only seen them for food stops, they were gone with the wind.
Interesting fact, De Rust is a small village at the gateway to the Klein Karoo, South Africa. It is located at the foot of the Swartberg Mountain Range. Following the movement of settlers inland from the Cape it became a favourite place to “outspan” near a mountain spring and rest before tackling the challenging route through the gorge. Thus De Rust (literally translated as “The Rest“
The badger continues to push on in his stride, taking in the views reminiscing about having done this leg of the trip before with his daughter. At some point I had to remind him that we have places to see and things to do.
Matambo is in for a big surprise tomorrow. I snuck off into De Rust, to see a man about a horse. Alas, no horses so I settled for an aux cable. I’m sure with enough Treffers for times, he will gladly throw the Sibanda Files CD out the window himself. 🤣
With a much needed downhill day, and we have been told it’s all downhill from here, we rest easy, as Barry and Vivienne Meijer who have ties to Zimbabwe, have graciously welcomed us into their Guest Farm. Having had conversations with Barry, his family ties to Zim, his travels across Africa and his Love for Meijer’s Rust Guest Farm, we cant thank them enough for going beyond and accommodating us.
Tomorrow we carry on this madcap adventure we call the old legs tour. We head past Oudsthoorn towards Calitzdorp ready for another day of adventure. To date we have covered 1652km and 20952m of climbing 🙌🏻 That’s like climbing Mt Everest 2.5 times…. Whose with me 🤔
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