Day 370 / 135

Date: 17 April 2023
Sleeping location: Portmento Art House, Riviersonderend, South Africa
Distance (km today/total/total Part 2): 108 / 23245 / 8408
Estimated climb (m today/total/total Part 2): 1200 / 222300 / 104300
Water required: 1 pondsworth
Day in three words: Toodle oo Karoo

It was a chilly old morning and I spent a crisp bit of time writing in the early sunshine on the verandah before breakfast (only continental, but a fantastic spread including some kind of pork fat thing that was banging on toast, plus good coffee: 8/10). Out on the road we were straight into the Tradouw Pass, which luckily for us was mostly downhill from this side. The first half of it was through a dramatic river canyon with the road hugging one side of it. Along here was a sign for “Alien clearing”, which was news to me as I wasn’t even aware they’d settled. Once we popped out the other side of the canyon we got a nice long descent with a private cycle lane, since roadworks had closed off half of the road but it was in perfect condition and we were allowed to ride on it. 

Down on the other side it was a different world; we’d gone from wild west to Wales, from the dry scrubland of the Karoo to rolling green hills backed by small grass and stone mountains. After a short hop through rural suburbia we arrived on my nemesis the N2 again. Thankfully it had a big wide shoulder and was quite quiet, but the frequent WHOOSH of vehicles does detract from the usual meditative cycling state. We stopped for lunch at a bougie cafe in the bougie town of Swellendam. As we get closer to Cape Town the swank and price levels are rising. Next to the cafe was a confusing sign for a new housing development with the slogan "finally, this is how much water you should drink daily" next to a picture of a pond. 

After lunch the N2 remained quiet and wide and rollercoastered its way through endless rolling wheat fields and very little else. It became very hot to the extent that it became a factor in tiredness and led to us drinking all of our water. We should have listened to the pond sign. For refuelling we had our hopes pinned on the small town of Stormsvlei, but both of its shops/restaurants were closed so we had to beg water from some accommodation and sit on the closed restaurant steps to drink it and eat our snacks, including wasabi peanuts that were so vicious I could only handle two at a time and it took 15 minutes to eat a small bag.  

After another hour and a bit we arrived in Riviersonderend*, which was a bit of a 1.5 horse town in which everything seemed closed. At the guesthouse we realised that this was because the power had been off all day as someone had dug up the copper wiring near the exchange overnight. It was a fairly nice guesthouse and the owner Johan was very accommodating; he gave us some chicken pie with sides and a bottle of wine, all on the house, both figuratively and literally since we ate it out on the stoop. I wish I had a stoop. 

*We learned the following day that this means “River without end”, after the nearby river of the same name, which is undeniably cool if clearly misguided. The geography textbooks don’t list the world’s longest rivers as 3. Amazon (6,400km)  2. Nile (6,650km) 1. Riviersonderend (∞km)