A friend and I have recently done the Cross Cape Cycle Route from Plettenberg Bay to Stellenbosch. We are both in our early sixties and we decided to do the trip over 10 days and also to make use of a support driver. The two of us met about 45 years ago at a lifesaving camp. We also met on the rugby field at school. I went to the navy and he went to the infantry and again we played against each other during the Defence Force rugby weeks in 1980 and 1981. The next year we landed up in the same class at varsity and eventually in the same study group. We then both married Stellenbosch girls, the two girls were friends since school days. It was therefore easy to stay friends. During the years the two of us had some fun together, a trip to Kilimanjaro, I sort of remember of night in Barcelona fuelled by Jaegermeister, there were trips to the Richtersveld when it rained and we got stuck in the mud, there were many hikes and mountain bike races and the annual Cederberg weekend. In short we knew each other well.
We slept in Knysna in an apartment just across from the Waterfront for the first two nights.
On Day 1 we loaded the bikes on the car and our driver Mario dropped us just outside Plett on the eastern bank of the Bitou River. We cycled via Diepwalle, Gouna and Kom se Pad. Beautiful forests, mountains and rivers. The last part of the route follows the last few kilometers of the Karoo to Coast, a race that the two of us did a couple of times. This time I cruised up the hill to Simola. I remembered the 1999 or 2000 K2C when a heatwave and 39C temperatures obliterated the field and many cyclists had to push their bikes up that hill. In those days a 6 hour K2C would have put you in the first half of the field, nowadays it will be at least an hour faster to be in the same position. From Simola it was downhill on the Old Cape Road and into Knysna for a braai and an early night. Distance 72.6km.
