384km

I slowly open the door this morning expecting the worse. The weather predicted cold weather but it was actually very pleasant. Perfect riding weather. We are planning an early 7 am start so I started making a noise at 6 am already to make sure Izabel is up. We are well-rested after spending the night at The Herb Garden. They have the most amazing Portuguese steak on the menu that is served drenched with garlic butter and chips. Definitely, a must-do even if you don’t sleepover.

We drive away on time and stop at the garage to quickly top up the air on the pusher tyre. The air is nice and crisp and I can already feel that this is going to be a good day riding.

Just a few clicks outside Springbok we turn away to Hondeklipbaai, a very popular vacation destination for those who want to get away from it all.

We are now in the Namaqua region on the West Coast and Springbok is the ‘capital’ of Namaqua Land and this arid landscape turns into a wonder world of flowers around August/September each year depending on the rain. We are obviously not passing through during flower season but people come from far and wide to experience the spectacle.

The landscape is awesome and the road condition is actually very good.

Passing over Wildeperdehoek pass.

We enter the Namaqua National Park through which we will be riding for most of the way until we get back to the blacktop and it is one of those things that is difficult to describe and photos, well those we take, have a difficult time telling the whole story. But I think it is safe to say that missing this when travelling in this region is a numb-nut move. For two hours we did not see any other vehicles and when we stopped and shut down the engine the silence was deafening.

Izabel ripping it up.

Where will we go to my lovely? We stopped and ate our pizza leftovers from last night.

And this little guy pissed on me for not running him over.

So where to now?

Putin is thirsty and we used the jerry cans quite a bit with distances between petrol stations often exceeding 300km.

Roadside refuel.

Whoop whoop! We are on the West Coast. Colourful little houses in Lamberts bay.

We arrive at our overnight spot, Lekke Ekke. 

The place has got some amazing views of the ocean.

Enna meets us with some friendly chatter and points us in the right direction for dinner. Surkov is very excited to go to dinner, we haven’t eaten since our leftover pizza lunch in the park.

He finds our reserved table at Isabellas only to have his hair scorched off by the candle against which he is leaning. Not a happy chappy because now his options for a hairdo is limited to an overcomb.

But he drowns his sorrows with a glass of wine.
The fried camembert and cranberry compote starter.

Followed by Crayfish Thermidor and white wine. The food at Isabella is really outstanding and the location on the harbour front creates a really nice atmosphere.

Tomorrow we continue our journey down the West Coast and we cannot believe it is already one week since we started this adventure. This part of the country has a beauty of its own but there is the constant wind to contend with. It just never stops and it is always a @#$# headwind, never from the back, ALWAYS from the front. For Putin, this is bad news because he is built like a brick shitter.