Day 3: The Northern Cape welcomes us with open arms and a HEADWIND!

This morning was a big day and the challenge of climbing up the Vanrhyns pass onto the escarpment was worrying even Jaco, which made me think that I should worry! So we thought it better to head out in the pitch darkness of the early morning (or late night for others) so that we couldn’t see what loomed ahead. With the millions of stars overhead twinkling and sparkling in the sky and the slither of moon hanging just above the mountain range, we set off on the dark road at 4am to get to the pass 40kms away before sunrise. We had a hiking headlamp and the headlights of Pieter and Mercia’s car (our parents in law who were kindly seconding us for the first 4 days) to light our way and we were grateful that it was cool and few cars on the road (still no hard shoulder!). The sun started peaking up over the mountains as we hit the winding steep pass in front of us and geared down to our most ‘granny gear’ to start the difficult journey up. We spent 50 mins climbing the pass through hairpin bends and steep uphills with sweat dripping down our faces. The view from up there was amazing and in total we climbed 800m to see the Northern Cape sign welcome us onto the escarpment.

However the unwelcomed part was the 40km/hr head wind which greeted us at the top! After stopping to put on more layers and arm warmers on, we were not happy to think that we had another 70kms to battle through in the freezing cold wind. We decided to listen to our iPod to while away the time as there was not much scenery to take our minds off the grinding pedals and the fact that we had to pedal downhill even!! We did come across a few interesting sights though:




We were very grateful to Pieter and Mercia Cronje who provided great roadside assistance when we needed food, water, moral support or a break off the saddle. We were fed with baked potatoes, Dutch caramel waffles, sweet oranges, energy bars and coke. What more could a cyclist want! (besides a long, long break off the saddle which seems to be getting harder every day!). After what seemed like hours, we reached the town of Calvinia only to find out that the accommodation we had arranged was closed due the owner being out of town until the late afternoon so we went on the hunt for another spot to lay our tired bodies. Luckily we found a lovely spot and I know I’m gonna like this place cos there is at least a pizza restaurant here so we’re going to treat ourselves tonight! For the first time, my body is starting to feel the effects of all this exercise – we just have one more day of cycling before our rest day in Williston. We’re close to completing one third of our journey!

Today’s Stats:

Total time including stops: 6hrs
Total Distance: 124kms
Average Speed: 22.5kms/h
Maximum Speed: 59kms/h
Average Heart Rate: 124 (Jaco), 129 (Christie)
Average Temperature: 21 degrees
Maximum Temperature: 36 degrees
Climbing: 1150 meters
KCalories Burned: 2409 (Jaco), 2758 (Christie)
Number of Bottles of Energy Drink Consumed: 5 & 2 cokes
Number of wee stops: 6

Christie’s highlight:
Listening to the PAG Deloitte Best Company song and the Kelly Group Roadshow song which gave me that extra energy and power to pedal into the headwind
Christie’s lowlight:
Being dragged out of bed this afternoon after only 2.5 hours of recovery sleep. Definitely feeling it today!

Jaco’s highlight:
Experiencing the dramatic rise up to the escarpment
Jaco’s lowlight:
Cycling 70kms into a 40km/hr headwind