Sounds like an awesome adventure. Did you take photos for us?? Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you!
-----Original Message----- From: Roberto Ambrosio <[email protected]> Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:58:22 To: <[email protected]> Subject: [DarknDirty] Re: ride2rhodes Go Carine! :) On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 8:19 PM, Carine R <[email protected]> wrote: > wow, what a ride ... 60-+ hours in the saddle (including interpreting the > maps, crossing rivers and climbing mountains) to cycle 509.4 kilometers to > rhodes. > > a magical ride, some of the BEST (and toughest) riding i've done. > > day 1: pmb - minerva - hella-hella - mackenzie; about 11 hours with 2616 m > vertical ascent > Cycle to the townhall, some fodies, wait for the clock to strike 6, and off > you go. > Mild distric road, chatting, bantering, mild cycle, first turn-off, a loong > climb on forest tracks and later singletrack into minerva, rewarded with > soup and bread, yum. in a tracktor and farm-implement-musuem :) > > Then a steep downhill, more downhill, a rivercrossing or 2, map > interpretations and more map interpretations, a very steep climb up > hella-hella, followed by the BEST toasted sarmies and carrotcake EVER in the > mackenzie country club. Hot showers, great food (lots of it) and chocolate > eclairs :) > > day 2: mackenzie - centacow - ntsikeni; just under 12 hours; 2658 m > vertical ascent > Starting in the dark, lots of map-interpretations and discussions, totally > wrong route, arriving in Donnybrook via a huge detour, them a stunning bit > of forest-cycling (inlcuding some very nice downhills) into centacow. more > stunning cycling along distric road and then offroad on cattletracks - the > last bit of uphill cycling on cattletracks to ntsikeni in the dark, with a > rivercrossing to get the feet wet right at the end. A huge logfire in the > most beautiful cottage in the mountain, with bright bright stars and hot > water for the showers. Soup, bread, supper, clean white linen, and no > snoring (the snorers were in the other cottage) > > day 3: ntsikeni - masekala in just over 12 hours with 1756 m vertical > ascent > A rude awakening over grass and wetlands, took us 3 hours to do the first > 13 kays. There were some rewarding downhills, though, a few kays on a > district road with a headwind, some excellent soup, rolls and bananas in a > farmhouse, and then a long climb over a ridge, with an apple-stop at the > top. A downhill to match, more downhill, and finally some navigation in the > dark to get to Masekala where there was no running water :( > > day 4: masekala - queens mercy - malekonyane in 9 hours with 1016 of > vertical ascent > The prettiest day of all ... into a massive plain and then downwards on > whatever tracks you could find. Lettuce sandwiches at queen's mercy > (supplemented with 2 cm of peanut butter and filtercoffee), then a stunning > climb through villages, and up, up, up, and then lots more map-interpreting, > some investigation down a valley, but back up, and finally DOWN to a > farmhouse on an exhilirating downhill, and onwards to malekonyane, with a > sharp steep climb, hot showers, vetkoek, a visit to the mission station. > > day 5: malekonyane, tinana, vuvu in over 12 hours; 1976 of vertical ascent > starting in the dark with muddy singletrack, then district road, a climb, > some downs, then off into the mountains for more singletrack, up to black > fountain on cattle tracks, and then ... it looks like a bikepark up there > ... wide playgorounds where cattle dragged wood ... lots of > map-interpretation ansd searching for bicyclce-tracks, a very technical > downhille (which the trance loved) and then onwards to tinana mission for a > snack-attack of note: cheese-and-peanut-sandwiches, doughnuts, coke. > followed by a climb on district road, and then 20-something of cobblestone > winding up-down never-ending district road. arriving in the dark, was glad > to see the school! interesting shower-thingy, and then sleeping in huts. > > *day 6*: vuvu-lehana-rhodes in just over 9 hours (including about 2 hours > of stops, but it was the last day, we had to make the most of it) 1546 m > vertical ascent > starting in the dark, a downhill from vuvu, with the most stunning view of > bicycle silhouettes against a red sky ... then up into lehana, lots of it > ridable ... a few picnics on the way up - then more upwards around the > corner, and downhill to the tenahead lodge for some tea and sarmies. onwards > down to the top of naudes neck, ehtn down, and a loooong climb before > finally a long sweet downhill, and then rolling hills into rhodes, with hot > showers, food and clean white linen. > > the rasa-guys cleaned their bikes and washed their clothes while the > r2r-ers spent the time in the pub :) > woke up at 4 to see the rasa-people off, and then promptly back to bed, to > wake up to a late breakfast. will be back next year! > > > > > > -- Kind regards, Roberto Ambrosio Madness does not always howl. Sometimes it is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "Hey, is there room in your head for one more?" --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DarkAndDirty" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/DarkAndDirty?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
