African Bikers Mountain Bike Tour – Day 7
Like so many of the rides on my 2-week mountain bike tour across South Africa with African Bikers, our ride on the 9th of March began with a steep uphill climb. Luckily, the cloud cover overhead kept the ride relatively cool and the scenery (for those who took the time to look over their shoulder) was spectacular.
After reaching the top of the long climb, we sprinted downhill and then began a full day of cycling along a relatively flat maze of dirt roads through a desert-like environment. The pace throughout the day was a fast one, with few breaks along the way. I lagged near the back almost all day long, but sprinted to the head of the pack on occasion to snap the photos you see here.
Half way through our ride we stopped for lunch at The Nature College – a small, remote location that offers young people a year-long program designed to equip them with the skills they need to begin a career in the Nature Guiding and Conservation industry. My African Bikers tour group didn’t stop at The Nature College to be educated, however. We stopped to eat!
A fantastic lunch of burgers, fries and ice cream was served out on the patio… and after lunch we hit the road again. We cycled straight out of The Nature College parking lot, made our way just a short distance up the road, and then cut back onto a rarely traveled dirt and gravel road.
Reaching our destination in seemingly no time at all (either because we were going so fast or because we were having so much fun (maybe both?)), we loaded up the van and drove for quite some time to a place called the “Rooiberg Lodge,” which would be our home base for the next three nights. The address for this remote South African lodge was given only as a GPS coordinate: 33°45’36″S 21°32’50″E
There were only a handful of buildings at Rooberg Lodge, so I assumed that all nine of us would be jammed together in one or two of the small houses on the property. But as it turns out, we were each given our own small dwelling (with the exception of Harry and Kirsten and Sandra and Erwin sharing a larger accommodation). Below are the photos of the inside of my remote African villa.
Needless to say, I liked the place. If I had had Internet access in my room (it was only available in the main lodge) and there were a supermarket nearby, I could have stayed in that remote location for weeks on end. I really, really liked it there.
Later that night we gathered in the main lodge for dinner and conversation. We spoke about our last week of cycling and what we planned to do the following day – our first official rest day on the tour.
