I feel like I’ve been flattened by a steamroller today. It’s certainly pathetic, and just a little depressing. Six months ago I was devouring an eight hour day in the saddle, steadily losing that unwanted third wheel around my waist, and generally feeling fit and strong and good to go. A few months back in the office chair and I’m stiff and tired and wondering how a mere 4 hours of mostly tar and good graded dirt road can leave me feeling so rough.
One of the many good things about being back in Cape Town with my bike is that I have so much still to explore. I’ve never had an off-road bike in the Western Cape and just about every compass point suggests an intriguing destination that I’ve never ridden before.
Franschhoek for example. Riding through that beautiful winelands valley yesterday, I was trying to remember the last time I’d been there by any means. I couldn’t. Perhaps it was eight years ago on that Tai Chi training camp I went on. I think that was around those parts… Quite possibly it was years before that, I’ve no idea really. Certainly nothing looked in any way familiar.
After the overnight rain I was a bit slack in setting off and on top of that I managed to get myself totally lost trying to find my way onto the Helshoogte Road from Stellenbosch. I’m riding with a woefully outdated tracks4africa map on my GPS and it kept trying to tell me to make turns into roads that clearly didn’t actually exist. In fact I knew the map was useless and hadn’t even intended to use the thing, but the brief directions I’d scribbled out on a piece of paper and stuck to my fuel tank before leaving had also let me down when the sign-posted route I was following suddenly ended in temporary roadworks. I was left meandering fruitlessly up and down Stellenbosch’s very pretty, but maze-like back roads, hitting one dead end after another before finally finding the Jonkershoek Road and escape.
With all the delays, and plans to meet my father for lunch in Pringle Bay, I moved pretty quickly through Franschhoek and up over the Franschhoek Pass. The view from the top is very impressive, but I didn’t linger and headed smartly on towards the Theewaterskloof Dam bridge, waving at a couple of GS’s I passed who were also out enjoying the day.
From the other side of the bridge the fun really starts. Literally ten metres beyond the bridge, a left turn onto dirt is signposted Caledon and Botrivier. A few kilometres along it, and a fork leads off the Caledon Road, heading south towards Botrivier. It’s a beautiful drive down a well graded dirt track, the mountains of the Groenlandberg Nature Reserve rising up on the right and the Witdraai and Diepklowe private reserves rolling away to the left. I hardly saw a car, passing only a few other bikers and the odd cyclist all the way to Botrivier. With my motorbike’s rear wheel spinning, it was pure fun, with a nice feel-good air and friendly waves exchanged with the local famers going about their Saturday morning chores.
I’m really not a highway fan so the brief stretch after Botrivier was definitely the low-light of the day. In desperation to get off the dull, traffic-choked tarmac I managed to get myself properly lost in some beautiful single track through the farm lands south of the N2, just after the Houwhoek Pass. For a more direct route, I’ve now learnt you can take ‘The Valley’ road from the N2 (a left turn about 15 kilometres from Botrivier if you’re coming from the east, although I didn’t measure it at the time so don’t take my word on the exact distance). It’s a beautiful, quiet back road with a little dirt stretch that eventually joins the Highlands Road as it winds through postcard orchards and flower strewn fields.
It’s not a bad place to get lost in though. I cruised easily along the little farm roads and eventually joined the tarred start of the Highlands Road. This soon becomes dirt again, before dropping suddenly down away from the Palmiet River to join the R44 by the Arabella Country Estate.
By then the day had brightened up considerably and I was back on familiar paths towards Klienmond and Pringle Bay, with a nice lunch and an afternoon ride back along the R44 coastal road to look forward to. All in all it was only 4 hours to Pringle, including the time spent lost in Stellenbosch and around Highlands. A really nice little excursion and one I’ll be doing again one day soon I’m sure.
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