2. RV1 (Vanderkloof) to RV2 (Britstown)
RV1 (Vanderkloof) to RV2 (Britstown)
RV1 - km229 - 02:30 -
06:30 - 4hrs stopped
WP3 - km308 - 12:30 -
13:30 - 60mins stopped
WP4 - km347 - 15:45 -
16:45 - 60mins stopped
RV2 - km408 - 20:00
I arose from my slumber around 6:00, not that I had really slept much. I
was just lying there semi-conscious making sure that my Garmin and my phone was
charging, every now and then drifting off for a couple of minutes. Seeing as
though my mattress was close to an open door, I could hear and see that it was
a beautiful morning outside after the rain had subsided some time in the early
hours of the morning. I got up having “slept” in my cycling kit, put on my
shoes, brushed my teeth, applied some sun cream and went off to find a cup of
coffee and something to eat.
I am a bad morning eater - at home I usually have 2 flat whites with an
extra espresso shot from my fancy pants coffee machine and then I will have
some weetbix an hour or so later - but I knew that it was important to get
something down my neck, even if I had stuffed my face with lots of pasta
shortly after I got in around 2:30 the night before. So, I had some coffee, a
couple of Super M chocolate milkshakes (generously sponsored and freely
available en masse at almost every stop!), a sarmie (stuffed one into my
camelback), signed out and mounted my steed departing my first race village
stopover.
After you leave the RV and make your way out of Vanderkloof, you enter
the Nature Reserve. It is a spectacular ride through the bush seeing the
wildlife out in the early morning. The world was wet and muddy in places, but
the earth smelled clean and fresh. I even saw 2 adult male warthogs having a
barnie just off the track I was on, they stopped, gave me one look, and ran
into the bush. There were a couple of steep cement descents in the reserve, and
I was thinking while riding that it's just as well I didn’t try to ride this
section in the dark while it was raining the night before, it could have been
tricky especially when you are tired. But I was happy to experience the bush in
the early morning, it’s just so awesome to see the wildlife coming alive after
sunrise!
Once outside the reserve, the scenery became familiar with rolling dirt
roads and lots of nothingness either side. When I say nothingness, I mean
fenced farmland with sheep on the other side, sometimes cows, but mostly
nothing. Just Karoo landscape at its finest: red sand with the odd green shrub
ready to be eaten by the merinos grazing this landscape. The roads up to now
have been scraped dirt/farm roads making for fairly easy riding conditions. I
was also experiencing a slight tailwind once I left the reserve, but this was
not going to last for long!
I went through Petrusville shortly thereafter and turned off onto the
dirt road on the other side of town, heading towards the first WP of the day. I
stopped shortly after making the turnoff as it was becoming obvious that my
body was a bit tender after the previous day’s 229km and my bum was pretty sore.
So, I thought I’d have a quick stop to eat my sarmie, plug in some music, apply
some bum cream and then set off for WP3 – which could not come soon enough as
my late morning hunger was finally starting to kick in!
On paper, the section between RV1 and RV2 is relatively easy, with no
serious ascending, no navigational challenges just lots of flattish rolling
dirt roads. However, I was also aware that this was going to be a challenging
day for me in that I have never ridden back-to-back big days before, so I was
expecting aches and pains and I was mentally prepared to deal with it as and
when it arrived. And it did arrive.
Throughout the entire Munga ride I would utter these words to myself
whenever I felt discomfort: “If the Munga was easy, everybody would do it” or
“you signed up for this, this is what you came here for, to stare this beast in
the eyes and stick it to him, so shut up and keep going!” This last line always
made me smile, because it kind of reminded me of that scene from the movie
Gladiator where Maximus is about to face Ceasar in a battle till death and he
says: “I knew a man once who said Death smiles at us all, all that we can do is
smile back”.
At around 10:00 (km275) I saw some of the other riders chilling under
some trees just outside a lovely farmhouse with a big old cement dam and I
stopped for a quick chat. I was after some ice-cold water and was wondering
whether they were successful in getting some from the farmhouse. They said no
so I proceeded to the cement dam and spotted a lady, and I asked her if it was
ok if I had some water from the cement dam. She stopped me (thankfully because
the water didn’t look too clean on closer inspection) and said that she will
call the “madam”. A friendly lady (the farmer’s wife) came out to greet me and
promptly invited into the yard by opening the remote-controlled gate leading
into a well-manicured farmyard with a soft kikuyu lawn under a windpump next to
a smaller cement dam, clearly intended for swimming. We started chatting while
I was befriending her dogs (my SPCA kit always helps to get the relevant
conversation started) and she offered to make me a sandwich, bring me some ice-cold
Coke and to refill my bottles with ice water! Talk about hospitality, and this
farm wasn’t even an official waterpoint!
Even though I haven’t been on the move for too long, it was tough
getting going again and it was pretty warm for how early in the day it was and
WP3 just didn’t seem to get any closer! On paper I had about 30kms to go to WP3
but the wind was picking up and it was starting to blow in the wrong direction!
And it was getting hotter! I pushed on to WP3, finally seeing the banners on
the dirt road indicating the waterpoint. I stopped and greeted the people
hosting the waterpoint before settling down for a bit. I had plenty of fluids,
more Super M’s, some cakes and a boerie. Then I just sat there for a while.
“The farmers hosting these waterpoints on their farms are such friendly people,
I wish more people can be like that” was going through my mind.
The 80km from RV1 to WP3 was a mixed bag, the wind picking up made it
more difficult than what it otherwise would have been, coupled with the road
surface slowly changing from being scraped to corrugated. I left WP3 to tackle
the 40km “dash” to WP4, in my mind this was going to be easy however it was a 2-hour
slog into a headwind rolling up and down the ever-changing road surface.
I passed a group of riders that left WP3 before me as if they were
standing still. You see, during my training, I would go out when the wind was
giving it plenty, normally around 16:00 in the afternoon, and I would condition
myself for the fight, because it is a fight. But it is a fight you win by being
consistent and not by emptying your tank in the first round. I would find a
cadence that is comfortable without going too slow, and somewhere in my
heartrate zone 3 (in my case that was around 75rpm and 145-155bpm), tuck my
head in by holding onto the middle part of the handlebars next to the stem, and
just grind. And I would always try to finish my training ride heading home into
the wind. I always thought back to my weight training days where the “money
sets” are the last 2 just before failure. This might seem silly, but that’s how
I approached it. The one thing you cannot hide from is the wind, and I
conditioned myself accordingly by saying “if the other guys are suffering in
the wind and I am able to deal with it, I will have an advantage!” It seemed as
if my wind training had paid off as even though it was a hard slog, I was
keeping a decent speed without going into the red zone (HR zone 4 or 5).
Soon enough I saw the banners indicating WP4 and turned off into the
next welcoming farmhouse hosted waterpoint. Some of the guys at the WP were
taking a dip in the cement pool, others were just getting ready to go. I was
ready for a dip because I have been grinding hard for this last section and I
was ready for a cool-down. I jumped into the pool wearing my bib shorts –
lesson learned at this point: pack a pair of shorts for swimming at the stops! No
sooner did I get out of the cement pool when I noticed some very ominous
looking dark clouds in the direction the riders who had just left, were
travelling in. I asked the hostess of the waterpoint if they were expecting
rain and she confirmed: “yes, around 18:00”. Shit…
I decided that I needed to get a move on, I still had 60kms or so to RV2
and it was 16:45 with rain predicted on my path within the hour! I had
something to eat and drink (more Super M's), replenished my water bottles and
camelback and I set off on the heels of 2 other riders who had heard the same
news as I. It was obvious, the weather was changing pretty damn quickly! I
passed aforementioned riders within 10 or 15 minutes or so when all hell broke
loose in the Karoo to the north-east of Britstown! There was thunder and
lightning everywhere in front of me and I was heading straight for it, just
like in that movie with George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg where they go fishing
and end up sailing right into the eye of the storm! The weather came over so
quickly and so severely that I didn't see the point to stop and put on my rain
jacket. Afterall, I have been thundering along for most of the day and I wasn't
cold. I can deal with being wet, but not cold and wet. So, I soldiered on.
By now it was bucketing down, the hail was hitting me horizontally from
the right and I had to tilt my head to avoid getting hit in the eyes,
thankfully I was wearing photochromic glasses. The hail and rain was coming in
from the side like I have never experienced, the thunder and lightning was
cracking everywhere around me and getting ever closer as I just kept on
pedalling. Within seconds the bone-dry roads had puddles everywhere and it was
a guessing game what I was riding through, but I just said to myself: “As long as
I keep going forward, I am getting closer to my goal of finishing, closer to
proving that I can do this. Turning around now would mean that I would be
cycling further than the intended 1130km. No, turning around is not an option,
keep going forward! It’s just rain and hail, plus it would make for one great
story as long as I didn’t get hit by lightning! I must keep
moving forward!”
Thor must have overheard my self-motivating speech because for about 5
minutes the thunder and lightning was cracking to my left and right, it felt
like it was right there next to me. There was no time for being scared (easier
said than done!) as I was on the highest part of the land, cresting a small
gradient in the road (I double checked on Strava and I can confirm that this is
true). Stopping to take cover was not an option either as there was absolutely
nothing to hide under or next to except a fence separating the farms from the
road. I was clearly the tallest object around. Turning around would mean I
would have to deal with this storm for longer as it was clearly heading in the
direction from which I just came (WP4).
I later heard that those behind me did turn around and there were a good
40 riders or so at WP4 taking cover from the weather. So I was told.
My ride through this storm lasted about 45 minutes (confirmed through
the use of Strava). When the last of this storm passed over me, I stopped to
take a video to try and capture the moment, when I noticed a bicycle light not
too far behind me on the road from whence I just came. I decided to wait for
the light, as we clearly had just shared a moment of madness! Up rolled rider
51, Harko de Boer. We had chatted briefly at WP4 before he set off before me,
clearly he was 1 of the 2 riders I had passed on this last section before the
storm came down on us.
Me: “I’m glad you’re
safe man, how insane was that?”
Harko: “That was crazy!” (Grinning from ear to
ear and in a distinct Dutch accent)
Me: “Ja shit, I wonder if that other
rider is ok, did you see him, I think I passed you before I passed him?”
Harko: “He stopped and went to lie down next
to the fence. Stupid.”
We exchanged introductions and started the ride to RV2, discussing why
we thought it wise to keep pushing on through the obvious danger. But it really
was a no-brainer, I mean what were the options? Go lie down in the wet next to
a fence and potentially get hypothermia? Or just keep pushing, you can be wet
and warm or wet and cold. The former sounded a better option even at the risk
of being struck by lightning, but then again, more people die from hippo
attacks than from being struck by lightning. You really have to be unlucky do
be struck by lightning, or at least that’s what I told myself at the time.
We rode together at the comfortable pace which seemed to suit us both
and chatted away about all things bike related. He seemed like a pretty cool
guy, the kind of older gentleman I would like to be when I get to his age; I
guessed him to be in his late 50's maybe early 60's but I don't know for sure.
He said that he had retired to KZN and he spends his time doing as many of this
type of event that his wife allows him to do. He spoke of a couple of races he
had done in Europe and I listened in appreciation. I was also checking out his
setup seeing as though he obviously has done more than one ultra-distance event,
and I compared it to my own setup. He had all the necessities: dynamo hub, the
new solar garmin 1040, lights running off said dynamo hub, etc. Riding together
also made me forget about the discomfort that had settled in: my hands were
starting to hurt a little and my bum was begging for mercy!
We rode the last 50 odd kms to Britstown over rolling hills, making sure to follow the only tricky navigation part of this section just about 10kms outside of town, which I had clearly marked on the masking tape stuck to my bike’s top tube. We were to traverse a short section on asphalt before Britstown and then turn off onto a railway service road in order to stay off of the extremely busy road leading into town (N10 coming from De Aar I think…) – this was proven to be the case with plenty of trucks flying past us on several occasions. Because of the increased risk to riders, being on this piece of asphalt for longer than what was dictated by Race Direction would lead to a 6-hour time penalty so we both paid close attention and rode safely into Britstown around 20:00, where we met Lip, shared our eventful day and eventually sat down for a warm and very delicious meal!
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