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Posted

It's not always a pain....(French Riveria or Tour de Atlantique?????) PS where's that guy who said he has a better place to ride ...Suikerbosrand...I think he said....)

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We even get an escort....!

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In living colour.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHl2IEIvoLQ&feature=youtu.be

Posted

Distance [emoji3581]

Duration [emoji3581]

Elevation [emoji3582]

Good teamwork by all 9 [emoji3581]

 

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Nice seeing you guys out, thanks to the guy shouting some encouragement when I was going the opposite direction on my own near the circus. Was getting a bit miserable ...
Posted

Nice seeing you guys out, thanks to the guy shouting some encouragement when I was going the opposite direction on my own near the circus. Was getting a bit miserable ...

Saw you, but was too late to say “hello”.
Posted (edited)

Hemel and Aarde trail on Friday morning.

 

Got to Onrus on Thursday afternoon, popped in at the Wine Village for my day permit.  Knowing Eudia closed down I was not sure of the setup, so got it early for an early ride on Friday.  Imagine my reaction on Thursday night when I saw the weather forecasting 60% chance of rain in the morning !!    :oops:

 

Thankfully YR site predicted less than 1mm for the time I was going to be riding, and only 2mm for after 9:00 ....  So the ride was ON  :thumbup:

 

 

6:08 I left my aunt's place, with a nice 2km warm up to the start of the trail

 

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At the Wine Village I stopped to check out the Honest box system, which is now at the new cycle shop - Village Cycles

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The box is well hidden in a dark corner on the stoep .... but it IS there  :thumbup:

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I just LOVE these trails !  Though we have always done the 12km option with Maritz.  This time I was tackling the 35km, or is it a 25km route, solo ....

 

The fire did not touch the first section of woods.  :clap:  Okay, it is not technical.  But a visual feast !!

 

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Then the bridges  

 

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Onto the new section, starting with a nice little climb to warm up the legs.  And then the split between the Red and Black routes ...

 

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By now I was riding super carefully !!  I was riding solo, on a quiet day .... so did not want to take risks ....  Just as well as there were some "interesting" downhill sections !!!  Some ending in nice loose sand ....  Then a lot more climbing, getting higher and higher up along the mountain side as the trail passes above the houses.  NO, the pic does not show the grade of this climb !!

 

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Just enough light was coming through the thick clouds to create the most stunning views.

 

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I pity the W2W riders that will be blasting through there with no time to take in the area ....

 

There are still some stark reminders of last years fire ..... but the veld is recovering nicely

 

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Getting into the kloof below the dam I was simply amazed at all the scenery ....

 

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This was promtly followed by some serious climbs .... not sure the top Epic riders will be able to ride up that wooden section, I could manage to walk up there !!

 

 

Past the dam you climb a bit more, but this is where the confusion comes in between "35km" vs "25km" for the RED route.  The original maps all show the route crossing over the dam wall, then circling around the dam.  The new route markers keeps you to the East of the dam for a short loop before coming back via the old route.  (My Garmin route is according to the route markers, see lower down this post).

 

I had hardly crossed the road when I encountered the first rain  ...  It was coming from the front, so I was riding into the rain.... I stopped and looked at the skies .... this was the perfect opportunity to turn back if I wanted to avoid the worst rain .....  And then I was reminded of the sayings of the infamous philosopher Mr Hairy : "It is only water ...."  And so I soldiered on into the rain. 

 

I had just gotten back into my stride, and the rain stopped as quickly as it started.  Little loop done, the markers takes you over the tar road and the return trail is on the East of the tar .... where they are removing the large trees, and schredding it into little bits, huge piles of little bits covering the trail .... so onto the tar for about 1km.  My knee was feeling the climbs, so I enjoyed the section of tar and gave my legs a rest.

 

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I got back onto the trail and just had to stop again to take in the view of the valley -

 

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Some nice down hill waiting, more time for my knee to rest. WHAT !!!  :w00t:  If you have ever driven this section in a car you know that STEEP downhill with the U-turn .... Nope, the trail stays on farm land .... but using tar poles across the trail to manage erosion they made it one serious steep decent ....  Down in the valley my knee did NOT want to tackle the next climb  :wacko:   So I walked the steep part of the vineyard climb, and slowly cycled the last section.  Another decent decent, this time on farm roads. This section ends next to the tar road, near the Plaaskombuis padstal, before turning back up into the koppies ....  This was as good a time as any, well the only chance, to take a brake from the actual red route, and to stop at the Plaaskombuis for some coffee  :thumbup:   Still hoping a bit of rest is all my knee needed ...

 

 

The coffee was LEKKA  :thumbup:   the knee not so much ....  I decided to take the blue route back, nice 6km with minimal climbing.  Turns out this section took a serious beating in the fires, and they are currently cutting down the burnt trees.  So I rode back along the tar road.

 

As I got to the start point, where you buy the permits, it started raining properly .... but I still had 2km to ride ....  The rain let up soon enough and I got home dry.  As I was putting the Scott back into the car at home the heavens OPENED, and I was drenched by the time I got into the house .... not an issue, as it was a few short steps into a lekker hot shower.  :thumbup:

 

 

Knee ... uhm ja .... feels okay, until I stand in the attack position with the right foot slightly higher than the back foot ....  seeing the physio on Monday morning.

 

 

still one of my best rides    :clap:   Those views !!

 

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PS - my typical Sunday morning ride is longer and with more elevation than what I did on Thursday.  So the knee comes as a surprise.  The only thing different my typical rides are that a couple of the hills were very loose stones.  But in each case I got off and walked long before my hart rate went too high.

 

 

EDIT - seems the knee is okay ... not been doing my stretches .... resulting in some tender muscles.

Edited by ChrisF
Posted

Why is the uploader so out of date? 2MB file size, really? Guess it has something to do with their server space, expensive, I understand.

 

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Tackled Buffelsdrift with a mate today, did the majority of the Nguni trail, on the gravel bike! Slow going, but saw some buck, and plenty bovine traffic! decent cappucino at the restaurant, and a very welcome bike wash. 

 

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Posted

Why is the uploader so out of date? 2MB file size, really? Guess it has something to do with their server space, expensive, I understand.

 

......

 

Use "Image resizer" ... free download

 

 

There is no benefit to loading a 2Meg photo as apposed to a properly sized 500kb photo for digital use.

 

 

Ironically, many projectors delivers a worse image as it tries to auto resize a large file ....

Posted

Use "Image resizer" ... free download

 

 

There is no benefit to loading a 2Meg photo as apposed to a properly sized 500kb photo for digital use.

 

 

Ironically, many projectors delivers a worse image as it tries to auto resize a large file ....

Even easier, take a screenshot of the photo you just took (that is if it is on your phone of course). 3 or 4Mb down to a couple Kb instantly.

Posted

Even easier, take a screenshot of the photo you just took (that is if it is on your phone of course). 3 or 4Mb down to a couple Kb instantly.

The Resize function on the W10 Photos app can bring it down to 2MB, discovered that literally 5 minutes ago. Calls it "best for emails and messages". 

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