Day 367 / 132

Date: 14 April 2023
Sleeping location: Port Wine guesthouse, Calitzdorp, South Africa
Distance (km today/total/total Part 2): 115 / 22989 / 8152
Estimated climb (m today/total/total Part 2): 2200 / 219300 / 101300
Total giraffe: 20-25m
Day in three words: Peak of gravel

The power was off again in the night, 10-2, but dad forgot to switch his light off before bed so it came back on at 2am. And there was no electricity again in the morning - loadshedding is having a real moment. As a result there was minor chaos at breakfast as they had no electricity for toast or coffee and the generator they’d hired wasn’t hooked up yet. It was a good selection of cold treats and I eventually got a decent eggs royale, but any breakfast that makes me wait over 30 minutes for the first coffee of the day gets 0/10.

Today dad and I were taking different routes, as I was keen to ride the mighty Swartberg gravel pass and he definitely wasn’t, so I set off solo and immediately started the 1,200m climb. The road went through more scrubland and I passed a couple of ostrich farm that only had juvenile ones, but it was still fun watching 50 baby ostriches stalking around and following the guy carrying the food. For several km I then passed through a steep sided green canyon where the road wiggled its way through the hills without making me climb too much, then came out into even more empty scrubland with sausage pineapple plants and for some reason a couple of camels. It was very very quiet and empty and almost no cars went past me in an hour. 

After a couple of hours of gradual climb I was getting close to the Swartberg range, a huge wall of rock topped with white cloud to my right. The pass was up this, somehow. There was a cafe and shop at the bottom, randomly playing a selection of semi obscure but excellent 80s tunes, and I had a coffee here and (because I was coming back the same way) left most of my luggage. 

Everything had been tarmac so far but shortly after the cafe the road turned to gravel, in decent condition but a bit bumpy. The first section climbed quite gradually, winding its way up the grassy slopes on the way up to the rock faces above, with views down to the valley below. When the road road hit the huge rocky sections it ploughed on regardless, clinging onto the steep slopes via dry stone walls that are still the original ones from the 1880s. The road got steeper and tacked up through the rocks on a series of hairpins tight against the rock. It was magnificent and fantastically scenic. The road was very steep for sections, over 20%, but post-Lesotho, with no luggage and with such a mighty low end it was a piece of cake. I didn’t linger at the top as it’s at 1575m and it was cold, but the view down the other side to the north showed the road cutting through huge red cliffs. I’d have loved to cycle down there but sadly didn’t have enough time.

The descent back down the same way was absolutely boneshaking, and the very steep section near the top required my cold hands to do some painful jamming on the brakes. Once it flattened out it was fun, though still bumpy, and I had one of those special musical moments - I’d started Led Zeppelin IV at the top and just as the fast bit kicked in so did Stairway to Heaven. Epic. By the time I got back down to the cafe I was properly cold so I warmed up with a beer and a fire to get the feeling back into my toes and fingers. A phenomenal pass, an incredible experience.

I still had 50km of mixed tarmac and dirt to do and figured this would be fairly boring after the mighty Swartberg, but actually it was a lot of fun. First was a section with lots of descending, all on tarmac so very quick. Once the dirt road came it was in good condition, rolling up and down but nothing too bad. 

The landscape was scrub/savannah and I didn't realise I was next to a nature reserve until I heard a weird noise, looked right and saw five giraffes hidden amongst the trees, the nearest one only about 10m away. I stopped and watched them for a bit as giraffes are always good value. After this I saw baboons, springboks/impala, bushbuck and wildebeest as well. The road was running parallel to the mountains so the animals were all backed with consistently excellent views. With the dirt road in good condition, a nice mix of up and down, almost no cars and the animal spotting it made for some very fun riding.

I got to junction where I could go back to tarmac (as planned) or take a fully dirt route which was a similar distance but had 200m more climbing. I saw a car coming, one of just a few all afternoon, and asked the guy the condition of the dirt road; he said it was similar to the bit I'd just ridden (not true), shorter than the alternative (not true) and nice (very much true). I had to get over some spicy rolling hills through savannah first, but then I entered a narrow, steep sided river valley which snaked its way mostly downhill. It was very pretty and atmospheric and more very fun riding. I began to realise that Maggie at 30kg is a very different proposition to Maggie at 45kg and I could put my feet through the pedals and actually power up small inclines, which made it even more fun. As the cherry on the fun cake, the river was dammed near Calitzdorp and a beautiful lake appeared with the dirt road winding around the edge of it and the sun setting over the lake to my right. It was a beautiful end to a beautiful day, some of the best riding of the entire trip. A shame dad wasn’t there to experience it.

I timed my big day perfectly and rolled into our B&B right on sunset, sporting a newly deflating rear tyre of course. Calitzdorp is a nice little town with lots of colonial, almost Latin-looking buildings and the B&B was located in one of these. We swapped stories and headed out for a tasty dinner cooked by a barefoot guy with huge dreadlocks. He may be a hippy but he could sure cook a good bit of lamb, which went down a treat with a bottle of local red wine - this was the first place we’d seen vineyards. More please!