Tulbagh

This past weekend I was up in Tulbagh with Carise and some of her friends. While they were mostly excited about champagne pickniks and wine tasting I was really looking forward to getting out on the trail.

On Saturday morning Anton (the husband of one of the friends with us) and I took to the road. We were staying at a place called The Wild Olive Farm, which I recommend to anyone looking for a nice weekend away. We headed down towards Tulbagh on the tar, but angled away to the nature conservancy where there were apparently the best tracks to ride on. The nature conservancy was beautiful. There was a small waterfall and some nice mountains. Unfortunately the condition of the track was pretty poor, and very steep. We only made it up a few hundred meters before turning back.

Our route to the nature conservency had taken us in a bit of a horseshoe shaped route and we decided to make up time by cutting through some farms. This was a great decision. We were on some backroads in no time - climbing over fences and wading over rivers to get through. We even came upon a road that had washed away. We still scoffed at the 'Do not proceed' sign, but quickly realised if was no joke when we saw a 10 meter drop where the road used to be.

The two pictures are of Anton and I in the river bed of the washed away road.





All in all a very pleasant ride although we were both glad to get back to the flats as the heat had started climbing. It reached a high of over 40 degrees that day.

It was also a good opportunity to break in the new bike on a longer trail and I must say I'm very happy with it. My fitness has improved but the bike makes everything so much easier. I'm flying up climbs and downhill sections are much softer. It's a fantastic piece of kit.