2001 Biking South Africa

Day 27, Thursday, July 12
Caledon to Strand
77.5km @ 14kph

Fear is a curious animal. Sometimes it sneaks up on you, catching you unawares. Today, on the approach to Sir Lowry’s, I realised it was not the climb up the pass I was dreading, but the drop down t’other side. And realised too that my anxiety had been a knot in my stomach for several days. Solution: I WALKED down the pass – finding it just too steep, too long, too windy, too busy, too frightening to cycle. And having made the decision to walk it, I could enjoy to the full both the view and the growing sense of a goal set and almost achieved. 

We had a slow start to the day, spending ages working on the bikes (dad found a tiny culprit in my tyre). We only got on the road at about 9am and took mom’s advice about how to get back to our starting place – which took us the wrong way! Charl got nipped at by an overexcited Great Dane. At which point we also discovered that my new back brakes were ripping a hole in my tyre. So back we went to the B&B. Mom and dad were still there luckily, so we changed my tyre for dad’s tyre and got back on the road feeling very vulnerable and anxious about being able to brake on the pass today.

We cycled through beautifully manicured fields where farmers put signs to show what’s growing – lupins on our left, canola on our right, later wheat on the left and gars on the right. Ploughed rows running this way and that, curved and lovely against a backdrop of grey mountains. On another totally wind free day – how lucky can we get? Overcast but not the clouds not low, not cold, perfect weather.

At some point, after a very long climb, we saw the Villiersdorp R43 turnoff to the right and the sea ahead of us, and a sign saying Cape Town 100km. And a chap on our left flying very low doing crop spraying, and bundles of hay lying on the right.

We took our first break at the 30km mark, just before the start of the Houwhoek Pass, which looked very daunting. We began to climb the pass at 12h15. There were proteas in the veld and the sound of water running. In places there was water trickling down the rockface, which was covered in dark green moss. On the ascent we were passed by a truck loaded with onions. It took us 30 minutes to conquer the ascent, second gear our lowest, in other words, the climb was perfectly manageable! There were signs demanding that heavy vehicles engage lowest gear; and round a corner we encountered the Houwhoek inn and coffee shop nestled in mountains half way through pass, which was choc-a-bloc with different varieties of conifers.

Welcome to apple country! Beautiful green pastures, and orchards of dry twiggy leafless trees punching up toward the sky, and in the distance jagged mountains grey blue, and misty (from fire smoke, I think), and clouds windswept across the blue of the sky. Huge stands of eucalyptus, and a long row of dark, dark green conifers marching away, and bluegums peeling bark.

We found mom and dad awaiting us at the start of massive squatter camps lining the road ahead. There had been reports apparently of people stoning or shooting at motorists, but we agreed there was not much they could do and they went on leaving us to face whatever hazards (none as it turned out) lay ahead.

We crossed the Steenbras, a coca cola coloured river flowing down to the sea on our left, lovely with ducks, stunning mountains in the background, a firestrip parting the greenery, a sign warning that feeding of baboons is prohibited.

We climbed Sir Lowry’s pass and at the top found the wind gusting frighteningly. There is not actually room for a road on the sea side of Sir Lowry’s and the road is in fact constructed on pillars, on a bridge of sorts, with a very narrow shoulder. But with fantastic views of the coast, of False Bay and Strand and Table Mountain oddly-shaped from this angle, and the road far, far down below, rushing to the hazy sea.

Fearless Charl leapt to the road as to a lover; I walked down the pass finding it just too steep, too long, the shoulder too narrow, the traffic too frantic, too much wind, too much fear.

We’re at the sea and can see Cape Point in the distance. Our goal is within sight!