Because I could only leave Masakala the
next day at noon, I got my clothing washed the evening before. The ladies wash the clothes in a cold water
tub, then normally hang it out to dry, either outside or in front of a
fire/stove. For some reason the ladies
wanted to iron my long sleeve shirt and accidently burned holes right thru the
front and back. From then onwards I was
Ironman to my fellow riders.
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| The iron man shirt |
I spent the rest of the morning eating,
sleeping and going over the maps to see if I can make up any time to
Malekholonyane. It’s unbelievably frustrating
to just sit around, knowing that all the riders are out there making
progress. When I eventually got going, I
was in racing mode. It took me 5 hours
to get to Malek, normally it takes about 7 hours. And it was done against a proper head
wind. I followed a “new route” thru the
Knira Flats – stayed as low as possible.
Not sure if it worked, but it’s always fun going on a discovery ride…
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| Knira Flats |
 |
| Queens Mercy |
 |
| Mparane Ridgeline |
Arriving at Malek before nightfall, I
dropped the saddle bag and rucksack to recce the route off the ridge to
Ongeluksnek. It’s amazing to find out
how much stronger you are on a bike without all the extra weight. I literally flew up the ridge on my way back
to the rondawels. That evening, I said
my final goodbyes to Tony & Caren.
My plan was to double up to Rhodes, theirs was to sleep over at
Vuvu. The friendly banter continued on
if we’ll meet up again at Vuvu or not.
Due to the slowness of the forst 4
days of the race, I got into the healthy habit of stretching before my ride
start and at the end of the day. This might also be part of the knees saving
grace. The other good thing was to get
everything ready in my kit and on my bike the evening before I went to
bed. When you do get up the next
morning, you’ll be on the bike within 30 min, and you don’t leave anything
behind – like the 3 sweepers did at Masakala (tracker, amped & clothes that
I brought thru to Malek).
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