With Seamus Allardice & Mynhardt Van Pletsen
After many messages forwards and backwards, we were finally on our way. A friend of mine, Jian, kindly dropped us off. She is an avid adventure enthusiast, whom I’m sure, given a bicycle, would have accompanied us in stead of just sending us off. Our starting point was at a t-junction between Villiersdorp and Worcester where gravel and tar meets.
I took my time getting ready, because I had to mount all my accessories on my bicycle. As for Seamus... he grabbed his backpack and hopped on his bicycle. Done! We were off, rolling along the hills and jumping between tar roads and gravel roads that seamlessly integrated with little villages. We couldn't help to notice how happy all the locals seamed. Almost an hour into day one we also spotted a cape cobra. Well we were pretty sure that that was what we had seen, vut we were definitely not chasing after into the bushes. Our first stop was in Robertson, a slight detour en route to McGregor, but we were hungry and needed some time out of the sun. We’d just climbed a fairly tough climb and having been Seamus’ longest ride since January, he started to feel the kilometers in his legs. Nevertheless, once back on the bike, I almost couldn’t hold his wheel in the head wind through to McGregor. Looking at Strava, we did push on in that wind. Sat down at the first “bar” in McGregor and had quite the replenishing ginger beer. Once checked into our Airbnb, we met the kief dog that kept carry rocks around… who’d later be-friend Seamus.
For dinner we considered a few local restaurant recommendations, but being Easter weekend, none of these worked out. We settled on 51 on main, a new upmarket restaurant for some beers & pizza. Here we met some tourists from Switzerland, with whom we basically ended up having dinner. That is how cycling works. It connects people from all over the world and some foreigners might even become lifelong friends.
Day 2
McGregor to Greyton… nope, to Napier… Oops! Sorry we are actually staying in Bredasdorp.
I had the whole trip sort of planned, except for the fact that I was still awaiting confirmation from a few places in Greyton. I eventually canceled those requests whilst we were on our ride to McGregor on day one. I searched for accommodation in Napier(the closest alternative in the direction where we were heading). Through the blurry lines of my phone's screen (on a bumpy piece of gravel road), I managed to confirm the place. When the confirmation email came through, I realised that I had just booked a place in Bredasdorp. I never told Seamus this, so he’s only reading it here for the first time. Being Easter weekend, there wasn't any accommodation available in Napier, so the app had thrown out nearby locations without me realising it! Nevertheless, whilst having dinner the night before, I told Seamus that we were riding to Bredasdorp. So... that was settled, but there was one challenge concerning our accommodation yet to be discovered.
After about 32kms of the world's best gravel road, we arrived back on some tar and soon turned into the Stormsvlei Restaurant for some brunch and coffee. I immediately loved this place, it reminded me so much of Frankfort in the Free State. So old, yet so well kept and such a history with many stories to be told. We sat down and ordered a cappuccino and some chips, because we needed some potatoes for the day ahead. After an hour of relaxing there, we set off to Protem, a very very small town with absolutely no shop open. We had a look at which road we would have to turn down on and then set sail down to Bredasdorp. Half way between Bredasdorp and Protem, we hit a bit of a dip and had to take an tack tickle time out, where Seamus had a seat right in the middle of the road and we ate some snacks before facing the massive head wind. We hopped back onto the tar road and cruised into Bredasdorp for lunch at. We had a huge burger each, with the usual milkshake and coke.
Our accommodation originally had only one double bed, but they kindly told us that they'd moved us to a B&B. Something that doesn't always happen, but we were stoked!
Since Seamus grew up in this little town, he took me to a local restaurant where I had the biggest plate of food that I've ever had in my life. They served the meal on a pizza plate and funny enough they asked if I'm over 18 when I ordered a beer... Something that'll happen for the rest of my life I guess... I’m over 18 I said and she handed me the beer, that was already open, so I don't think she would have been able to actually take it back..
Day 3
As we were in an B&B, we received a beautiful breakfast and coffee, making it much more pleasant to hop on the bike and get going straight away, but as we did that, a small cloud break happened and it got super wet. We put our rain jackets on and started riding. 5km's later, we stopped and took off our jackets because we were over heating and the sun was shining. Interesting weather out there.
We had a bit of tar road with some rolling hills before we turned left out of Napier to explore a road that Seamus had his eyes set on for quite some while. We didn't know what to expect. We just knew we were in for the adventure. We climbed a climb from the one side but had about 4km's of insanely wonderful downhill on the other side of this climb, reaching up to 70km/h on our bikes. The day was once again split 50/50 with gravel and tar and we hit a bit of tar before climbing onto a dirt road to head through to Stanford where we met a friend for lunch and enjoyed some milkshakes again. The section of road after that was fairly dangerous and had one road block making it extra difficult for us to cycle on the tar road. Seamus once again attacked me and left me to fight for my piece on the road with some cars. I had one close encounter with a trailer, but we called it even and no one was hurt.. plus I didn't die, so it was all great.
Rolling into Hermanus, we were first welcomed by Tyla and then Mynhardt who'd cycled through from Somerset West to join us for the night and the next day's ride back to Somerset West.
That evening we enjoyed some great pizza and beers in a little Italian restaurant, where the waitress also didn't believe that I was over 18... But still I had a beer. On our walk back to the accommodation, we saw some traffic police and asked them if we could blow into the little pipe to see if we'd be over the legal limit of alcohol. Mynhardt blew into the pipe and after two beers, he was still in the all clear with a reading of 0.0... very confused, we asked the cop if the system worked well. He himself doubted it and said the best is to just not drink at all if you are driving.
So we learnt that you shouldn't drink and drive but rather smoke and fly..
ja ja.
Day 4
On day four, we woke up to the sound of rain. Cars flashing by on the wet tar roads and the calm sound of wind. We had a few laughs before we realized that we’d have to get the day started. We got going but soon realized after 3 kilometers of riding that it’d be better to relax in a coffee shop before heading the road further. Seamus also picked up some issues with his rear wheel, the same one he’s been struggling with since day one. He decided that it was the perfect time to top up the sealant and in the process of doing so he managed to bend the valve resulting in some slow pumping. Mynhardt and I sat and enjoyed a croissant with a cup of coffee watching the hopeless man fend for himself.
We got going eventually with everything fixed and the sun appearing out of no where, drying up the road and starting to make it a pleasant day. I had so much rain gear on that I soon got to warm and started to pull of some jackets until I just had a pull over on. After what felt like a very tough section in the wind, we had out brunch stop in Pringle Bay. I think we almost sat there for one hour just enjoying being out on our bikes. I was stoked, after 3 days of no wifi, I kindly received the WiFi password and could continue with some great Instagram stories. Following the coastal rout through to Somerset West is really beautiful. You connect with the ocean and the mountains and become at one with the road. It’s great! Our final stop for the day and on this trip came up, the famous Pitstop just before Gordon’s Bay. Apparently they have “moerse burgers” but we had none of that. As the waitress took our orders, Mynhardt said he’d have what ever Seamus is having. Somewhere there was some mis communication, because when our drinks arrived, I got a beer, Mynhardt a coffee and Seamus a Chocolate Milkshake. Someone wasn’t to happy haha.
Just as we entered Somerset West, Seamus; wheel decided that it wasn’t sealing no more and he arranged with Jian to fetch him and safe his day, whilst Mynhardt turned off home and I continued homeward as well. Our trip ended quite abruptly with everyone splitting ways so quickly, but man what a ride, what a weekend and what and adventure. I saw new places in the Western Cape that I haven’t seen yet and met some great people. It felt like we’d done this around the world trip, yet it was so short and so fulfilling with joy and laughs. We decided we’re doing one soon again!
SO, just as our day ended, this story also ends.
We also did a podcast on this trip - https://audioboom.com/posts/7242088-easter-bikepacking-adventure
I also added some video footage of the trip here. Nothing fancy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSNM6gHKtZw&t=16s
Comments