8 July, Somerset West

Friday 8 July, Somerset West

We left Ai Ais, and the warmer valley temperatures, and rode out into the desert area again, towards Vioolsdrift and the border post into South Africa, about 130 km, with about 85 km of gravel, the gravel was fair and we made good time to the border, our last border of the trip.  We were through the border in record time and back in RSA, with no touts, or hassells of any sort, at either side of the quiet border.  It was great to be home but always sad, in that we now knew that the end of our trip in sight. 

We got very cold riding this leg of the trip and decided that we are real woosies so we would booking a room in Springbok, we had been told of a hotel / camping ground called the Kokerboom and we headed there, we enquired about the rate and were told that it is R450,00 for the night, no ways the other guy on a bike only paid R150,00 so the receptionist phoned the owner and he also has a bike so we could have a double room (with heater) for R250,00!!  Apparently temperatures had been below freezing, with ice on the ponds!
The next morning it was blowing a howling gale and very cold, I had my duck down jacket on under my riding jacket and it made it bearable.  We decided to ride to Saldahna Bay and try and get the broken pannier bracket repaired on my bike, we went to the airfield there and Johan Froneman was very kind in allowing Larry to use his workshop for the repairs and we spent the night the control tower at the airfield. An unusual place to spend a night!
So after a late start with the repairs and welding of bike and pannier brackets – again -  we set off for Cape Town, with wonderful  sunny warm weather.  We had decided to try and do some shopping and landed up at Canal Walk, these two plaas jaapies in dirty riding gear walking around one of the biggest and fanciest shopping centres in Africa.  And then we bought nothing!!
We had a wonderful ride around Table Mountain, Camps Bay, Hout Bay and Chapman’s Peak en route to Noordhoek to see Sue and Trevor Abraham.  Once again it was wonderful to see some Grahamstownians and some friendly faces.  We only had about an hour with them and then back on the bikes to Somerset West where we will spend the next few days with Paul and Penny and we will also get to see Phil and Lindsay while we are here.    
We will be back in Grahamstown on the 15 July and will be at the airfield at 5pm for drinks and it will be wonderful to see as many of our friends there as possible.