As my friends says, I'm flying solo now. Today I said my good by's to Tony & Cheryl and see you down the road to Damien. It was time for me to continue on my journey alone. But, I did have to take care of some unfinished business. I needed to get my Malaria meds. I made one more trip to the Waterfront in down town Cape Town in search of the Travel Clinic. Once there Dr Clair took me in rather quickly and explained to me all the options of the different types of Malaria meds. She even scared me into taking others vaccinations just to be on the save side. Actually she was very good at explaining what was a good idea to take. So I left her office with a sore arm and my meds.
Now the adventure begins, I was off in the direction of the wine country in search for the city of Ceres. I found myself on this amazing road that was like a ribbon along the edge of the mountains. Tall pine trees from time to time and massive rocks scattered along the way. Some stones were balanced on their tips on top of other massive rocks.
Once on the other side of Bain's Kloof Pass I started to come into the valley that Ceres was in. Because we are in the late fall and early winter season here, as I rode into the valley it reminded me of some of the New England towns in the eastern states of the USA. Trees that looked like maples had their leaves changing to yellows and reds.
One quick stop for fuel and the next stop was the village of
Calvinia. As my GPS indicated the road from here on out was gravel or dirt roads. This leg was 140 miles long. I was a little concerned that I was could run out of daylight as I left Cape Town late. Plus I was climbing in altitude and the air was not very cold but cooler and I'm sure worse with the sun dropping behind the mountains. The road was long and straight for long sections. I was able to hit speeds of 75 to 80 mph at times. This area was a high desert with no trees and masa type mountains in the distance. I was the only one out here for most of the time. From time to time I would see what I thought were people out in the desert but it would turnout to be baboons.
I arrived in Calvinia just as the sun was dropping behind the mountains and yes, it was getting colder.