Aghulas and on to Melkbosstrand…

The 30 odd km’s to Struisbaai were made especially difficult by the wind that ripped across the road, threatening to blow us off it… I rode hunched over the Tank Bag, trying my best to reduce the effect of the wind, but to no avail… By the time I got to the outskirts of Struisbaai, my neck was hurting from all the buffeting my head had taken, and my left shoulder was aching from hanging on for dear life !!

I stopped for a breather and while I was taking a photo, heard a bike pull up behind me…. Enter Roland Zuellig, from Switzerland, riding a KLR 650, which he had hired in Cape Town, and was riding to Sedgefield. We chatted for a while, and he explained that this was the first time he had ever ridden a bike on sand, and the high winds hadn’t helped matters either !! He had started this morning from Hermanus, and ridden via Elim, and was looking a little frazzled by his experiences of the last few hours…

The lighthouse at Cape Aghulas...

We rode through Struisbaai together and on to L’Aghulas, where we parked at the lighthouse. After having a drink at the restaurant under the lighthouse, we rode out to the Most Southern Point in Africa. The usual photo-shoot took place, and we were quickly surrounded by many of the other tourists visiting this site. They asked the usual questions, and took a lot of photos of us together.

Roland Zuellig and I celebrate making it to The Southern Tip of Africa...

Our bikes wanted this photo for their records as well....

And now for that "other tip" in Tunisia....

Promising to visit Roland, in Hallau, Switzerland, and ride with him to the Rhine Waterfall, we parted and wished each other a safe journey. I had a quick bite to eat, and then headed for Hermanus, to meet with Riaan. It was great riding the road to Napier and on to Fairfield again, and I then turned onto the R43 and did the Akkedisberg Pass, and cruised into Stanford.

Took this one from inside a ditch near Hermanus...

I met with Riaan and his friend Martin, where we discussed my planning and I thanked him again for the route advice to Malgas. I was running late and spent only an hour with them before leaving to ride to Melkbosstrand on the West Coast. I took the scenic route through Kleinmond and Betty’s Bay, on past Pringle Bay, with it’s bitter-sweet memories, and round the twisty bits just before Rooi Els…. And then that Bastard wind got up my nostrils….. As I crossed the little bridge over the Rooi Els River, a gust of wind drove me dangerously close to the barriers, and things got progressively worse on the way to Gordon’s Bay and the Strand….

I stopped to gather my wits and curse the wind that was doing it's best to blow me off the road and into False Bay...

The R44 hugs the eastern shore of False Bay and has the most spectacular scenery you can imagine, easily comparable to Chapman’s Peak Drive on the Atlantic Seaboard…That’s if and when you can take your eyes off the road to take a gander at it, that is… I now know why the body of water on my left was called False Bay… If you make just one False move here, you’ll end up in the bloody Bay… To make matters worse, I was riding into the setting sun, and despite the dark visor, was having problems spotting the apex of the corners, and misjudged a few of the entries into them, making life even more difficult for myself… And of course the oncoming commuter traffic made matters even MORE complicated…

I lifted the front section of the helmet to see if I could get a clearer view of the road ahead, and the wind tore under it and tried to blow the helmet off my head, ripping the foam cover off my mouthpiece in the process…. Hectic stuff…!! How the heck do you guys in the Cape ride in wind like this…?? Besides, “carefully, while biting holes in our seats” !!!!

It takes more than a "stiff breeze" to whip the water into a spray, Dudes...!!!

I made it out onto the N2, after refueling in the Strand, and to cap off a tiring day, ran smack into the tail end of Peak Hour Traffic…I will not discuss the virtues of Cape Town drivers in this blog….mainly because they have none !! The only cars that moved over for me was those with upcountry number plates… I considered “putting steel cap of boot to car door” on a number of occasions, if anything, just to let them know that I was actually THERE ….!!! Those ear-like things attached to the sides of your cars are called “Side Mirrors”, you nincompoops !!!

I had a blinding headache from the tension of the last hour’s ride and squinting into the setting sun, and the first thing I did when I arrived at the home of John and Shevaughn, (“connections of a connection”), was to take two Nurofen, to ease the pain in my temples, and get my left eye out of my right eye-socket and back where it belonged… Happens when you squint a lot…. Warn your kids !!!

It had been a long day, 13 hours since I left Mossel Bay earlier that morning, and 695 km of great riding (apart from that evil bit along the False Bay coast…) I was happy to take a shower and the minute my head hit the pillow (after a few glasses of wine…) I was in biker-land….er…or is that dreamland… It’s all the same to me, Dudes !!

© GBWT 2010