Missing my cycling training ...

Hi patient people,

Today the subject takes me back to my 2010 cycling exploits, not fantastic mind you, but fulfilling nonetheless :-)

The best part of the training was the weekend route from Somerset West to Rooi Els on the R44. The next pics show me leaving home for training - training starts (downhill) were always great, the finishes (uphill) never so :-). The fauna and flora at home are eternally enjoyable though!

I may bore you with my detailed descriptions but, apart from the famous #Chapman'sPeakDrive, there is no better coastal scenic cycling route in the Western Cape - if you can ignore the crazy boat towing motorists!!

The training route starts in a normally busy Somerset West but traffic starts thinning out just past Gordon's Bay. As you descend on the R44 towards Faure Road you will see Bikini Beach - one of our numerous #BlueFlag beaches. Do not sight-see too much though because you'll need to concentrate on the road :-). If you get closer to the beach in winter, you may see the seal in the pic sunning itself :-)

1 km further on up the road, you will see the first sign denoting the #WhaleRoute - exciting! The left side of the road is populated with high value residential properties hanging (some precariously) onto the Helderberg mountainside.

You are now on your way to the Steenbras River crossing on this sea-hugging road. One can stop off here and make your way down the rocky coast ravine for a dip in the refreshing waters of the river mouth. Unfortunately, I do not have pics but you can find some at: https://www.google.co.za/maps/@-34.1936696,18.8210447,3a,75y,90.49h,71.67t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sQxJOr6W2z38MKYvsxfQnyw!2e0.

The Steenbras River crossing lies at the bottom of the first nice climb on the R44 after Gordon's Bay. Going up this climb allows one the first clear sighting of Rooi Els, one's destination. It is a stiff climb but not too long (about 1 km) Near the top, there is a water fountain and plaques denoting Clarence Drive - the official name of this stretch of the R44. Before 10 o'clock in the morning this part of the road is in beautiful shade - believe you me, you need this piece of otherwise useless information during our hot summers!

Another two turns in this drive and you come to the top - many blessings from a view and tired legs perspective! Here you may choose to wait for your training partners or have your training partners wait for you because you will experience a very nice (no pedalling, yea!) down hill with ample sea views. You will now make you way down towards Kogel (Cool) Bay and the temporarily straight part of the R44 that runs past it. In summer, this is a favourite Christmas season camping spot for Capetonians and Stellenbosch inhabitants.

At the bottom of the downhill there is a series of twisty sections before one starts climbing again - this time a much more manageable climb towards a seaward crest to the right. On the way back from Rooi Els, this is a view that rival (in my humble opinion) that of parts of Chapman's Peak Drive. This crest is the last before the winding downhill towards Rooi Els. On this stretch there is another whale watching point that is best visited towards the 10th month of the year.

My favourite training technique was to conserve energy on the way to Rooi Els and to burn it on the way back - my training partners were never impressed!! Since it was training for the Argus Cycling Tour, I simply mimicked the way I envisaged racing.

One of the many sunset views you can get, sitting at a roadside restaurant in Gordon's Bay

Of all the cycling training roads I did in 2010, I miss this one the most. Unfortunately I have since sold my road bike because of safety concerns. Apart from that stretch of road, I also trained on Spook ("Ghost") hill in Somerset West, Chapman's Peak Drive, Helshoogte between Stellenbosch and Franschoek, Jonkershoek and the R44 between Stellenbosch and Wellington, returning with the R304 via R312.

Until next time, when I hope to chat about my recent squash trip to Durban.

.

The last time I walked (almost crawled) up Table Mountain ...

Hi Everyone,

My apologies for neglecting the blog for a while. I'm back on the horse again (at least for this one more post :-))

I remember very vividly how I walked up #TableMountain in #CapeTown many years ago without so much as having raised my breathing. That was indeed many years and kilograms less ago, as I realised a few months ago. Funny how memories can fool one.

Our #Belgian visitor was still with us and my daughter came home from Mpumalanga for a short Easter visit. Now the youngsters put psychological pressure on me to walk up the mountain using phrases like: "You're not getting old are you?". Always thought the young lady would have been a better psychologist than a civil engineer but there you are!

So on the morning of the attempt, we set off from our temporary base in Gordon's Bay. We stopped at a truck stop along the N2 to stock up on energy providers. I got myself some real coffee and others stocked up on energy drinks. It is normal to buy gelatine-based sweets and I got a packet. Then the four of us hit the black strip. We got to Table Mountain before the sun reached sufficient Africaness to shine with burning intensity but were to late to beat the throngs. After weaving our way through wild crowds at the lower cable car station, we proceeded slowly to parking near #PlatteklipGorge, the start of our epic journey.

The walk up Platteklip Gorge is the easiest, safest and most direct walkway up the the mountain. It is shorter by far than starting at Constantia nek or from Kirstenbosch or even from the Lower Cable car station.The pathway has been gentrified over the years by mountain lovers and #CapeNature but still offers a stiff challenge. A few years ago the most outstanding moment was when we encountered a gentleman running down the gorge with an about two-year old in a basket contraption on his back. Apparently he ran up earlier that same morning - I thought the guy had lost his marbles!!

If you're fit enough to walk constantly at a stiff pace, you can conquer Platteklip Gorge in one-and-one-half hours. You will raise quite a sweat though and should take sufficient water, even when you stutter along like I was recently. Or maybe I should say, especially if you struggle along like I did that that time.

I must say I started off aiming for a two hours of 'enhanced bodily interrogation' but only made the summit half an hour later - this after my son had started to mourn the fact that he did not bring his shaving kit with. With his beard having grown to what he considered unmanageable proportion due to waiting, I eventually dragged my well-interrogated body over the summit.

On the way up there were several irritations:

1) a group of kids and their parents/minders caught up with me and they kept chattering away about finding easter eggs and some were even hoping to bump into the easter bunny! Imagine! When your every breath is torture, you are surrounded by the chattering class.

Apparently they found some easter eggs hidden along the path by well-meaning Cape Nature staff because it was the Easter weekend. I found out these philantropists were the basic cause of my discomfort - which, of course, had nothing to do with my lack of aerobic fitness, perish the thought.

The Belgian visitor and my son clearly inherited genes from Alpine mountain goats. Not so, I was happy to note, my daughter. A few years on the #Mpumalanga highveld and constant bad air had taken its toll on the young lady. Even she admitted that she felt a significant difference between 20 (the last time she undertook the walk up the mountain) and 25 years of age :-).      

2) A lady who clearly had nothing to do, I presumed, than run up and down the mountain on daily basis, ran up and down past me a couple of times. I was taken aback that people would entertain such activities but it is better than sinking into a state of depression (which I was considering - too much time to think when you moved as slowly as I did).

3) The only other thing that i could not overcome was my constant scouting for escalators - couldn't these Cape Nature people do a proper job? I mean, it is all well and good to lay out a safe path but not to include escalators was criminally negligent, in my opinion at the time.

Having eventually crested the summit and noticing that everyone on top were in contagiously joyful mood, I got into the swing of things i.e. collecting evidence of my odyssey by imprinting it on the #CCD of my clever little cellphone camera. Although I took a pic or two on the way up, I admit these occasions were rest breaks rather than pure photo-ops. My heart wasn't in it at the time :-)

The other reason was being in a carnival mode at the top, was the decision to go down with the #cablecar. It could not have come at a better time. So after the obligatory choosing of the best scenery for photo-ops, we bought tickets for the trip down and joined the queue.

At this time I thought about my daughter in law who, on a previous occasion, was caught in midair by a recalcitrant cable car. Amid the discomfort all around her, she said loudly to my son: "This could be it, baby. Final destination!" Not waiting to notice the impact of her ill-chosen statement, she merrily carried on taking pics. Obviously, my son (her 'baby') was less than comfortable with the unfortunate turn of event.

Nothing like this happened to us though and our cable car was very well-behaved and offered the expected smooth ride down.

Bonjour mes amis ...

Bonjour mes amis,

Yes, you guessed it. Marie Antoinette's cake eaters have woken up!

This past week, the French have fired a few shots across the bows of Nelson's ship.

This is what the map looks like ...



EntryPageviews

France                      10

South Africa             4

United States           2

United Kingdom     1

I understand that many of my posts have already been read by regulars, which skews the stats a bit. Since I have not written much lately, we cannot expect much else but writer's block will vanish soon :-)

Anyway, it is good to welcome new readers!!!

A bientot.

Halala!

Tanzania has joined us. Karibu!

Millennium surpassed ...

Hi everyone,

We passed the 1000 readership mark sometime during the night over here ... thanks to all "stalkers".

At this rate, Suarez would have bitten us :-)

Keep travelling safely and enjoyably!

The Not-so-great trek to the Second Waterfall in Jonkershoek, Stellenbosch

Hi Everyone,

Today we walked part of the land originally granted to Johann Andriesz who was commonly known as Jan de Jonker, hence the Jonkers part of the name Jonkershoek (Jonker's corner). When he died in 1688, his property passed on to a free black slave and neighbour, Jan of Ceylon. He owned it until 1701 and it was granted to Anna Hoeks (where I presume the the second part of the name Jonkershoek  originates from. Anna, at a stage, owned all but one of the concessions in Jonkershoek. Let it not be said that Stellenbosch has always been male chauvinist.

The reason for the brief history reference is that Jonkershoek is THE favourite mountain biking destination in Stellenbosch. It also hosts many other attractions, among them lovely self-catering cottages surrounded by meadows inhabited by horses, super wine estates, good walking paths and clear mountain streams. At the origin of one of these streams lies the Second Waterfall (for some reason its name has not progressed beyond the numerical!) Perhaps this is because the other waterfall along the same path is named the First Waterfall. These waterfalls are not anything like the Augrabies (see post: http://expectmeagain.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-place-of-great-noise.html) or those in Mpumalanga (see post: http://expectmeagain.blogspot.com/2014/03/mpumalanga-near-kruger-national-park.html), but they are within walking distance from our home, so they hold a special attraction for us.

My youngest son (that's him up there), insisted that we visit the second waterfall on 22/06/2014 (the "Today" referred to above). I've never seen him this enthusiastic about a nature walk and agreed, partly not to dampen his spirits. I found out later that his "enthusiasm" developed in part because he's been promising some friends that we'll visit the reserve a very long time ago and that peer pressure was the main instigator. That said, it was a balmy morning when we set out from home.

Welcome to my world!

Our Belgian visitor's first concern was snakes and my son was quick to point out that the mountains around Stellenbosch have a fair supply of puff adders - not a comforting thought! I consoled myself with the presumed inactivity of snakes this time of the year.

At the gate to the reserve we each paid R40,00 and were on our way - if you have a Wild Card, you pay substantially less at all the participating nature reserves in the country! Makes a lot of sense for people who visit nature reserves often.

I was not really looking forward to struggling up the steep walk near the Second Waterfall as a result of my limited aerobic fitness. I have this theory that because I was a premature baby (7 months), my lungs never fully developed and although I tried to make up for this by training seriously for middle and long-distance running as a youth, I simply could not hack the big-time. Now in my middle age, my lower than normal aerobic fitness levels are back to haunt me. Truth be told however, I have not been assiduous about my aerobic training and rely on squash to keep my fitness levels going.

Aerobic fitness xa!

Anyway, we made our way up the single track path from where the marker indicated and the walk was immediately invigorating. The soothing gurgling sounds of a nearby stream accompanies the walker on the trail with every step and makes one realize the wonderful integration of nature and its calming effect on the human psyche.

Although we have just passed the winter solistice, the warm African sun tends to fool some flowers into premature budding. This means quite a bit of pollen in the air - in fact Stellenbosch outdoors is not recommended for the sufferers of hay fever, the pollen count being consistently among the highest in our beautiful country.

We walked up the trail, and for the first time among my many prior traverses, the path was filled with ankle deep water at some level junctures.

Once we got to higher ground, we could walk without worrying about puddles. The Jonkershoek Valley, that far up, displays fantastic colour variations between the enveloping hills. Unfortunately, we did not have the best cameras for the job and our pics look ordinary. Also, once we got to the drop zone of the waterfall, the water stream was bathed in sunlight while the surrounds were gloomy. My camera could simply not handle the contrast, resulting in overexposure of the lighted areas and a lack of detail, which is a shame.

Road long, spirits high! 

We made it up the steepest part of the walk and I caught up with a resting gentleman of a similar age to mine. He stood there smiling while I resembled a steam train engine of yesteryear. In a little Eastern Cape town of Dordrecht there used to be quite a climb as the steam trains tried to haul cargo towards Sterkstroom. Many times the engines could not build up enough momentum to crest the little hill and they would wheeze, hoot, blow billows of steam. I felt like one of those steam engines when I reached my well-rested friend.

To get to the "drop zone" of the second waterfall one has to wade through the stream and over boulders and smaller loose rocks. It requires a bit of goat-like surefootedness and simian agility and, as a result, was pretty exciting. Partly, because one could end up in an icy stream of water boots and all and also because you are keeping an eye of others would could provide similar but more enjoyable entertainment. No-one was in a mood to supply free comedy to the others, so we all made it there pretty nicely. Our Belgian companion decided to put her feet in the puddle that formed at the "drop zone".

Magical place for all

On previous occasions albeit during summer I've also been similarly overzealous, so I watched with interest as she stepped into the clear light-brown water. The young lady, although she originates from colder climes did not last long in the puddle - 30 seconds by my reckoning.  After a record was taken of her Costa Rican-like bravery, she spend the rest of the time sitting on a log rubbing some heat into her feet. I must admit that I did not feel any empathy :-).

Cold feet, brave girl

Let it also be known that no-one else was brave enough to follow her example.

Once we had "conquered" the Second Waterfall, the trek home began because we were all smelling the faraway lunch offered with love by the Good Wife, who stayed home on this occasion.

By common desire we missed out on a visit to the First Waterfall and head straight for the fleshpots of Klapperbos Close.

On the way back, we rested briefly at the foot of the steepest portion of the walk and just above us the light over the mountain crest formed a fantastic rainbow which none of our cameras were able to capture. This was one of the great visual highlights of our trip.

With the naked eye, the rainbow was there. Still a stunning pic though!

I left the reserve with some regret and we made it home without further incident.

The bonus for me was taking some fresh water from a stream high up and drinking the sweet natural nectar at home - really refreshing!

Keep travelling people and keep safe.

And India has joined the readership ranks ...

Hi y'all,

This is what the readership (by country) looks like as we get closer to 1000 page views.

The darker coloured countries read the most pages for the week to date. For the first time Indian readers have joined us - welcome!

Audience

Keep reading and exploring!