Selati stage 5 continued..

The Blyde River Canyon.

Ok… I am back. I took a longer than expected break in my last post due to a stomach virus that hit me at midnight on Monday night. So Tuesday and Wednesday were spent in bed making this week even shorter.

To continue…. Bonnet had begun. This is one viscous climb with some really steep sections. Once again we quickly caught the riders that past us while we were at the water point. This climb goes on for way too long (about 8km) but some of the kicks made it seem twice as long. Once we got to the top there was another enjoyable decent into Graskop. Graskop came with about 50km to go so there was still quite a stretch left. For the next 30km’s the road was an undulating one with a good road surface. We also caught up with some of the vets and 2 of the 3 ladies who had entered the 4 day tour. We worked nicely over this section and all was pleasant until the leading lady’s mother (who will remain nameless) started shouting and screaming at the 2 women in our group that they weren’t allowed to ride with the 7 day riders. What a B!atchh.

In the end they were forced to drop from our group when the commissar was summoned. The group that remained did take great pleasure when we later passed the leading woman. The previously mentioned mother didn’t make it easy for us though she was following her “Angel” or should I say “2 Angel – FS” (the number plate on her car!) very closely and did not move her car over one inch. Luckily we weren’t racing in the Western Cape as we were forced to cross the sacred white line to get past. Martin Witters however did let her know what the group thought of her driving when he passed.

The last 20km’s were a real drag, a headwind had picked up and the road surface had deteriorated. But at the end of a long day in the saddle we made it to Blyde, where a pool, massages, Chelsea buns, protein shake awaited us!!

Once we had recovered sufficiently we caught the bus to our accommodation. The bus took us all the way up a mountain on a dirt road to get there. Once there though we were told we had been upgraded!! Oh yeah. Pierre had managed to get us into a bungalow overlooking the Blyde river Canyon (3^rd biggest in the world). Now that was luxury, and close to the pool which we headed back to after getting cleaned up. For lunch we both chose the pap and wors which filled the gap in my stomach that was threatening the Blyde Canyon to become only the 4^th biggest!!

Neil Relaxing after stage 5.

I then took a bike ride to the view point to see the spectacular views the canyon offered.

That night supper was a bit of a disaster as they weren’t quite ready for us, but eventually we were fed. On the way back to the Chalet we bumped into Tony Rominger, who told us that he had only ridden 350km’s this year! And still managing the tour comfortably enough. It must be nice to have all those miles in the legs.

Only 2 days to go and I still hadn’t managed to get a tan!!!