Day 354 / 119

Date: 1 April 2023
Sleeping location: Away With The Fairies backpackers, Hogsback, South Africa
Distance (km today/total/total Part 2): 104 / 22051 / 7214
Estimated climb (m today/total/total Part 2): 1100 / 208400 / 90400
Favourite couple: Andreas and Toni
Day in three words: Low key lovely

With little reason other than inertia I didn’t sat off until after 10, which was silly as I wanted to cycle 105km to the town of Hogsback and take a rest day there. Thankfully conditions were ideal; calm and clear and the perfect temperature, and the first half of the day was almost totally flat. I headed out of town on the big smooth R67 with its beautiful wide shoulder, kept my head down and hammered out the first 50km in one go. The scenery wasn’t much for this whole section, just a big wide valley with low hills either side, alternating between agriculture, cows, horses or just nothing (but still fenced off, of course). At one point there was a lake, which was beautiful but very smelly.

Eventually the shoulder disappeared but the road became even quieter, and the landscape got a bit more interesting as I climbed into low rocky scrubby hills with giant sausage pineapple things everywhere and a fairly big reservoir* adding some extra niceness. With 2/3 of the day gone I turned off the tarmac onto a lovely smooth gravel road through rolling grassy hills, a bit like the less dramatic parts of the Dales. With no worry about traffic and gentle gradients it was lovely relaxed riding. After 20km of mindless bliss I met a "bigger" gravel road, which was in much worse repair and actually borderline unrideable for about 5km. Thankfully it perked its ideas up after this and I rode into Hogsback trouble free and well ahead of sunset, ripping it down a big skiddy fun descent into town. It was a quaint little village seemingly consisting of little other than shady trees and cute little places to stay, with hints of wonderful views through the trees. 

I headed for Away With The Fairies backpacker hostel as it seemed like it might have people and the potential for socialising on a Saturday. In fact it had TOO MANY people, and they had no beds available, but I could camp in their quiet forest for a relative pittance and it seemed like a nice spot so I went for it. Whilst in the bar a man came in and started waxing lyrical to me about Maggie’s beautiful chromoly steel frame, which is a great way to get me onside. His name was Andreas and when he heard where I’d ridden from he insisted on buying me a beer and asked loads of questions. I then talked with him and his lovely wife Toni until I realised it was almost dark and I still hadn’t put my tent up.  

After erecting my little house and showering I went back into the hostel for a pizza and started chatting to Andreas and Toni again. They then told me that Toni's daughter was born with no immune system, is the only person in SA with this condition, almost died multiple times in her childhood before her diagnosis and according to medical science shouldn’t have made it past four years old. She’s now 35. In the last ten years they have been able to get her a special plasma cell treatment from the US, after a big fight with the SA government, and she can now can live a semi normal life. And they were the ones saying what I’d done was amazing. After this big talk we rattled through a heap more "big talk" in about half an hour; they were both brilliant, I really enjoyed our conversation and at the end we hugged goodbye. Also they said I looked like I was in my mid 20s, which is completely untrue but I will take it. 

*Called Waterdown Dam, which is a bad name for a dam if you believe in nominative determinism.