395km

Woke up after a great night’s sleep listening to the rain but it is quiet. Great! I have no issue with rain but I do not like to start a day riding in the rain. Outside it is a great day for riding, it is overcast but the clouds are high so the chances of it raining is slim (that’s what Google said). We pack while drinking coffee and by 8 am we are ready to hit the road.

We are heading out to Vanzylsrus today, a one-horse town in the Northern Cape where we will be sleeping in the hotel. Our first stop will be Vryburg, then Kuruman and Hotazel before arriving at our destination.  

By the time we get to Vryburg, it’s time for breakfast and we decide to see what Mam’s Food at the garage (remember what this is?) is like. Good choice, the food was excellent. After we filled up, our stomachs and Putin’s fuel we set off towards Kuruman. Oh almost forgot, we picked up an extra passenger in Vryburg. His name is Surkov and he will be with us for the rest of our trip.

Kuruman is yet another small town in the Northern Cape that has seen better days. One if its star attractions is a natural spring called the “Eye of Kuruman” that delivered an abundance of clean water and for this reason, Kuruman is known as the Oasis of the Kalahari. Unfortunately, we did not visit it since we passed by the town rather than go through it. By this time the clouds has lifted and it was becoming hot, fast. We were expecting it since hot weather is what this part of the country is known for.

The only thing that stood between us and a cold drink was about 200km and a little place called Hotazel. Yip if that sounds like Hot As Hell then you are right, that is exactly what it means. Hotazel is a mining town with a swimming pool. The ground here is rich with manganese ore which does not help with the heat problem as it bakes during the warm summer days and makes the ground feel like an oven.

So after a very brief tour of Hotazel, we tackle the last stretch to Vanzylsrus. This was not meant to be a difficult day by any stretch of the imagination but the heat really started to become draining and to make matter worse I have developed this insatiable thirst overnight to the point where I just gave up stopping to hydrate but just flipped up the helmet and drank while I rode. Yes, I know a camelback would have been nice (note to self). But the heat was beginning to take its toll on our sanity.

On the last 100km, I decided to do another drone test, another fail. Now I remember to record but it just won’t follow me ggrrrrrrr! I’m sure I will be an expert by the end of the trip. I’m sure it went that way…

We arrive at our destination late afternoon. What a relief to get out of the 40C heat. The pub is nice, the room is nice, the swimming pool is nice, the people are nice and the food is nice. It is just flippen nice! BTW if this does not make sense my excuse is that I’ve had a few so I’m typing impaired while doing this report.

Surkov had a really bad hair day.

The Oasis at the end of a long hot day.

Try getting me out of this bed tomorrow morning!

Surkov is not waiting around for his first drink.

But we will definitely have a good night’s rest for tomorrow’s leg which will be demanding with 410km to get to our next stop and more than half of that will be on dusty 40C+ roads. We are getting closer to the coast every day.