Day 365 / 130

Date: 12 April 2023
Sleeping location: Loerie Guest Lodge, George, South Africa
Distance (km today/total/total Part 2): 89 / 22800 / 7963
Estimated climb (m today/total/total Part 2): 1700 / 216100 / 98100
Passes: 8
Day in three words: Happy birthday journey

Day 365 - a whole year on the road. What a thing to have dedicated a year of my life to, at once amazing and ridiculous. 

 

After breakfast (potatoes with feta, avocado and fried eggs, good coffee, cooked by me so obviously 10/10) we set off into an immediate long and steep climb away from the bay and its resident wildlife. Even once up the steepest bit the road seemed to deliberately go right to the top of the hill rather than taking an easier route around the side, just to make it harder for us. Half way up the hill was a confusing road sign showing a picture of a cyclist, a picture of a tortoise and the word “beware”. I spent the rest of the climb on the lookout for vicious tortoises. 

After a descent which rapidly divested us of all of our hard-earned climb we had a short but horrible section on the N2, up a climb with minimal shoulder and traffic roaring by most of the time. Hopefully we have now left it for good; it will not be missed. After a short section of nice quiet tarmac we then hit Seven Passes Road, the oldest direct route between Knysna and George, built in 1883 and traversing, surprise, seven passes (ie river valleys). It was a mix of surfaces, tarmac, gravel and dirt, and went through a mix of scenery, old woodland, managed forestry and farmland with big dark peaks in the background. As someone on komoot said, it was "never flat, never boring" and for the most part it was lovely and scenic and quiet. The dirt/gravel sections were mainly in good repair and ok for dad on his skinny tyres and old knees. There were also the delights of seeing occasional baboons on the road and some monkeys stealing something from a farm. After several days of feeling like the cycling was just a means of getting between things, this was cycling as an enjoyable activity again.

There wasn’t much in the way of facilities, so second breakfast/first lunch was a few sandwiches and a pocket egg whilst sat on a big log, but mid afternoon we stopped at a cool countryside cafe with random strange tat everywhere and a colony of weaver birds chattering in the tree near us. It’s a sort of community enterprise and they run workshops for local kids, which is nice. It also had the phrase “Africa is not 4 sisees” graffitied in several places, which made me feel rather smug as this surely proved my non-sisee status. 

We sneaked into George through its affluent suburbs before dad dropped his bike at the shop to try and fix some crunchy feeling in the drivetrain. It’s quite a big place, and quite historic although I didn’t really get that impression from cycling around it. Our guesthouse was fairly nice and had such a wonderful amount of horizontal space for disgorging all of our kit onto that dad was moved to comment on it. There was a fancy steak place nearby and I treated us to dinner with all the stops pulled out to celebrate a year on the road; steak, two starters, a bottle of nice red, dessert and a port. Well, one is not likely to celebrate a year on the road many times in one’s life.