more spam about freedom challenge .... ignore if you don't want to know - dirty better read this to see what you're in for ...
copied below from derek's blog, the four of them (that he writes about) cycled with me from PMB to Rhodes *Day 7: Freshly Frozen* I think I found out where Woolworths buys their frozen produce from - It must be from around here. It was so cold this morning the fields were snow white & even the sheep still had white frost on their backs @ 8am ! Myself, Sean, Erol & Estelle left Rhodes this morning @ 4am after only 4 hours of sleep so we could get to our afternoon mountain traverse with enough daylight to spare. No sense in sleeping on the moubtain now is there. Todays otal distance was 108km. It was a sub zero morning - My drinking water tubes froze up, my shoes had ice on them & all the water pools alongside the road were fozen solid ! After the glorious warm days heading to Rhodes today was a severe shock to the system. I'm glad I didn't unpack my winter kit to save weight. I had more layers on than an Egyptian mummy today. Anyway we were treated to home made crumpets & jam, muffins & a delicous breakfast @ Cheseny World Farm by Minky before heading on to Slaapkrantz. The weather turned nasty over the Drakensberg this afternoon & we ended up donning our rain gear. Worse than that was having to pedal hard downhill to avoid being blown to a dead stop by the bitingly cold headwind that was howling straight at us. Our portage today was up & over another mountain with a steep rocky decent to our destination in the valley 8km below. (See pics). We went down on the left along a sheep track to pick up an old jeep track to get to the farm Slaapkrantz owned by Andre & Joyce far below. A fair bit of bike carrying was required & I must confess that I've been in the wars lately with injuries. After climbing Lehanna's Pass my left knee is agonisingly sore and my left shin is still swollen from my previous falls. Well guess what - whilst carrying the bike down the mountainside a strong gust of wind blew me completely off balance on a particularly loose rocky section & I fell down the embankment. I tried to save the bike from damage by planting my head & shoulder on the rocks to break my fall & ended up dislocating a finger in the process ! I only realised this after my vision cleared & I tried to pick the bike up again. I couldn't get the glove off because of the perculiar angle of the finger & I figured a broken finger should be hurting a whole lot more so I pulled the finger straight & it popped/cracked back into place. It was a relief because we were stuck up the side of a mountain & what could I do ? So now I can't ride properly because my left knee hurts badly with pedal pressure, I can't walk properly because my left shin is still sore & I can't grip the handlebars too good because my finger is bruised & a bit swollen from the dislocation & relocation !!! Despite all this it was a stunning portage over the berg. 'Annie Jane' you would have gone gagga over the steep 6km jeep track decent ! In elk geval mense, ek is vrek moeg so ek gaan nou slaap... *Day 8&9: Bloody Hell!* The last 2 days have not been fun at all, even though the landscapes have been breathtaking. We awoke to heavy rain, thunder & lightning @ Slaapkrantz & discovered that the day would begin with two massive portages - 15 odd km's of hiking up & over two bloody high mountains ! It took us 6 hours (6am start) to get up & over those mountains (Pics attached). The rain had turned everything to thick black sludge & we struggeled no end to climb/decend along goat tracks with bike on the back. The mud was so thick that the wheels stopped turning every few metres, that's if you could even push the bike. Picking it up was impossible because of the extra weight. Conditions were treacherous to say the least & at one point the lightning struck the fence we were trying to get over, right on top of the first mountain. (Gerrit ek het jou amper van bo daai berg gebel - My linker been is kas toe op die oomblik - knie en shin en met die mislike weer, modder, berg klim ens was dit net nag !!!) So there we were @ 14:00pm @ the foot of the last decent with 70km's still to go with bikes that were no go because of the mud. Anyway we managed to find some water & clean them somewhat before heading off again. We got to Resouw in another thunderstorm & shortly after it got dark. It was bitterly cold, wet & muddy & we were tired. We thought of asking the police for lodging but decided to press on. A fall or two later in the dark we passed Moordernaarspoort an intermediate stop (bed only) if we wanted it. We didn't, with 45 odd km's still to go in the rain, mud & hilly darkness ! We never saw another farm after that, even when the lightning lit up the valleys around us. Anyway we arrived at the endpoint 'Vaalbank farm' @ 01:30 am, bloody cold, covered in mud and exhausted - a 19 hour day !!! Today (09:30am start) wasn't much different - Morning rainstorm, hailed on criss crossing farm veld & fields covered in mud, getting lost & trying to ride the mud. The stiction (resistance between tyre & mud surface) was horendous, only made worse by the strong headwinds. We had to pedal hard downhills to prevent ourseselves fom coming to a complete stop ! The bottom line is that today's stage was meant to be 132 km but we did only 55 km by 6pm. We decided to stop @ the intermediate stop @ Brostlea farm instead to recover a bi. Everything is wet, covered in mud and it's cold on the Freestate flats. Wer'e a day behind schedule but one can't always have great weather. Anyway sometimes when your'e feeling miserable a hot shower & a cuppa tea is all you need to lift the spirits a bit. Now all I need is for the lovely Doc Fletcher to straighten me out a bit, a physio/masseuse to work on those aching muscles, swollen knee, dislocated/relocated finger etc and for someone to stick a clean sock in Seans snoring mouth ! http://derekhj.blogspot.com/ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
