by Henry
131 km, 1036 m total ascent, 29°C maximum.
The ride in the morning was advertised to be difficult by Colleen, and quite a number of riders chose to hop on the lunch truck to bypass the morning segment.
The gravel was chunky and hard to ride, but we did encounter several herds of oryx at the roadside. We unfortunately came upon an oryx sitting quietly at the roadside as we rode by. Mia went to investigate and it turned out to have a broken front leg.
There were also herds of skittish springbok.
At 27 km, we had a lovely Coke stop at Betta Farm and I ordered a steak and cheese pie, as well as a slice of red velvet cake.
After Betta’s, the road got even worse. We had to endure long stretches of thick sand and loose chunky gravel. At times, I felt like I was riding with two flat tires and going uphill.
Close to arriving at lunch.
After lunch at 61 km, the gravel road surface began to improve, and our tailwind increased in intensity.
The mountains presented a varying range of pinkish hues.
We were blessed with a decent gravel surface as we climbed from 1300 m to 1700 m elevation. It was also slightly overcast, which diminished the sun’s intensity and eased our climb.
The landscape continue to captivate through this stretch.
Two examples of large weaver bird nests seen in the afternoon.
Upon reaching 1700 m, we then had a 30 km fast descent to our camp in Helmeringhausen at 1400 m on smooth-rolling hard compacted gravel.
We arrived at camp about 4:45 PM; I dropped into the camp store to pick up a beer and some ice cream, and came out to a flat tire (stealth thorn in the sand). Sigh. 😢
With the late arrival, I had to scurry around to set up my tent, take a shower, and change out my inner tube before the daily 5:45 PM rider meeting.
Those who endured the whole day agreed that this was one of the hardest riding days on the Tour.
No comments:
Post a Comment