#BruisedButtCycleChalleng cycling day 8

#BruisedButtCycleChalleng day 10 cycling day 8

Today’s saying for the day is “Every day is a surprise”.   I had an excellent steak for dinner, Neale had a burger, and when we left the restaurant it was raining.

We had a relatively late night and an early start – having been too tired to clean the bikes last night it had to happen this morning what with all the mud and grime that had attached itself to the chains.   We ran out of food for the road yesterday,  but none of the stores that sell fruit were open,  so we pumped my rear wheel and set off at 07:44.

For those of you who don’t know,  Bredasdorp is in a valley.  we were heading to Hermanus,  a beautiful see side town. Well the ‘down hill’ run began with us climbing 70m in 2.6km. One mighty uphill. We made good time because the wind was still asleep.  :-).

The wind started when we got over the mountain.   We saw two El Paco’s to add to our list of animals – I didn’t mention the Baboons from yesterday – and decided that the frogs – of which we have seen zero – should also be added to the ‘seen animal list’ because like the multitude of cows and sheep,  they often keep us company and entertained as we keep moving forward.  It has come to our attention that we miss a lot when we zoom up and down the roads. I for one have never heard the frogs as I drive.

We stopped at the first town, Napier, for a quick hot drink and some fruit.  The town is so laid back that the Jack Russell that was in the street didn’t even move as we approached.

We had multiple surprises such as climbing a total of 1134 m – to go DOWN to sea level (a little less than yesterday’s 1306m) as well as experiencing all the seasons every two hours. We cycled through five rain showers –  not hard pelting rain like the highveld,  but hard enough, and the sun shone through three of the downpours. Another surprise was that I felt wetter going up a mountain pass than I did cycling in the rain – without my rain kit.

We had a quick lunch in Stamford and then made our way to Hermanus arriving at 16:30. We covered 95.3km, were in the saddle for 7:00:28 and managed an average speed of 13.6 km/h.     Looking at our average speeds it is easy for one to think we simply crawl and what we are doing is easy  – the numbers never lie – but what the numbers cannot reveal is the impact of a headwind – especially one of somewhere between 20 and 36 km/h does to average speeds.   I have been asked again for some information on the ‘granny cog’ and gearing. Please let me know if you would like me to elaborate and give more details.