Cederberg – 29 Nov 2022

Calvinia – Kromrivier Cederberg Park: 221 km

Our night under the stars was spectacular. Only one regret remained the next morning – the fact that I half-assed the inflation of my mat. Being too lazy to get up during the night I made it through the night by trying to distribute my weight as evenly as possible.

The downside about sleeping without the rain-fly over the tent is that you get up with the sunrise. The good thing about sleeping without the rain-fly over the tent is that you get up with the sunrise. Since I am an early riser by default there is no downside for me; waking up with a sunrise like that is always a win. Izabel’s dreams of having rusks and coffee are dashed when we realize that the resident peacocks had a feast during the night with the rusks we left on the table.

But it becomes clear that it s going to be hot today. There is no shade so we pack up camp in the sun and while it is still low on the horizon you quickly break a sweat. So we work quickly to get everything packed and ready to go. After a quick breakfast, coffee, and, a chat with our neighbor (he believes that everything we see in the world today has been written for us but he did not see Izabel coming to ask for coffee 😉 ) we are off.

A quick refuel in Calvinia before we turn onto the R364 towards Clanwilliam. Before long the air cools down which means that we’ll get a bit of a reprieve from the heat until later the in the day. We ride over Botterkloof pass to join the paved part of the R364 that goes all the way to Clanwilliam.

We do a quick stop at the Englishman’s grave where Surkov pays his respects. Before the Pakhuis Pass, we stop at Travelers Rest Padstal for a bite to eat. Putin, as always, is a hit and a photo session ensues where everybody wants a turn to ‘ride’, either as the rider or as the passenger in the tub.

Just over Pakhuis Pass we stop at the gravesite of Louis Leipoldt, well know Afrikaans author, and other things. Actually quite a cool site, a place I wouldn’t mind haunting one day. Clanwilliam is the last town before we venture into the mountains so we get some meat and salad for tonight’s braai.

The one thing that strikes you as you are leaving the tarmac behind at the edge of town is that they decided it was a good thing to make the Clanwilliam entrance to the Cederberg park a dumping site. I thought about it for a few minutes but could not come up with a plausible explanation but by that time it was behind us and things were what they were supposed to be, beautiful.

Our reprieve from the heat has expired and it was now properly hot. The last 6o km gravel section would be pretty brutal. It is not technical but large parts of the road consist of those mega sized corrugations, those that you cannot glide over with some speed. Something between a whoop and a corrugation, truly the most horrible type of gravel road. But we eventually made it to Kromrivier Cederberg Park where we will camp for the next two nights. They have very nice shaded camping spots with private ablutions and an on-site micro brewery. They brew stout and Weiss. BINGO!

We pitch camp before heading back to their offices which also houses a shop and restaurant to get drinks, wood, and ice. Now we are set for the night. My only worry is the wind that is howling. Making a fire in winds like this can only spell one thing, T-R-O-U-B-L-E. But my fears are unfounded, just as if somebody flipped a switch the wind stopped.