Back to Mountain Biking

Just in case you thought I had turned into some kind of rad snow bum, I am actually still mountain biking out here. After my not so restful rest day, I entered the final week of the trail via South Africa's highest road pass, Naude's nek.

The foot of the pass

The 600m climb was on a fairly good surface road, which deteriorated on the other side. Nearing the top I was overtaken by the only vehicle I saw on the pass - a police truck. Five minutes later I overtook the same police vehicle on the way down using the verge of the 1 lane pass.

The er, head of the pass. Still pretty cold at 2500m

Leaving Rhodes with it's skiing resort and helicopters, and descending into Vuvu was like taking a trip back in time. As I travelled over the grass plateau I passed several horse mounted shepherds and cowherds (?) watching over their animals which grazed on communally owned land. They ranged in age from about 11 upwards. Descending from the plateau on heavily worn cattle tracks that had created smooth funnels in the red earth, I emerged in a completely different world from the relative modernity of Rhodes. The village at the foot of the hill was without electicity, there were no vehicles and no generators. The first thing that struck me was the mix of sounds that came from the 60 or so mud huts and rondavels. From my vantage point on the hill 100m away it felt as though I could hear everything that was going on in the village. The well spaced plots had no dividing fences or bushes to muffle the noises of village life, and the air was filled the sounds with cowbells, kids playing and women singing.



I spent the next 3 days riding through this area, Matatiele, and for 2 of those days I was accompanied by a local guide. I wasn't 100% sure why I needed a guide for this section of the trail, but the reason soon became clear. There are only a handful of marked vehicle tracks on the map, and the freedom trail takes many of the unmarked informal paths and cattle tracks that snake through the middle of villages and fields. I don't think I saw any road signs for 3 days. Thankfully my guide, Tsepu, grew up in this area and works as a hiking trail guide in the surrounding Drakensberg escarpment, and seemed to know his way around the rabbit warren of cattle paths and vehicle tracks.

Three of next four days I would stay at accommodation without electricity, the first night in Vuvu being the most basic. Tsepu and I shared half of a hut, a rough partition dividing our space from that of a teacher from the local school. My candle lit dinner for one consisted of steamed bread and chicken. It was simple yet tasty, which was fortunate, for I would eat the same meal for breakfast and lunch too.



The Vuvu junior secondary school was certainly the most impressive building in the village, being built from fired bricks, and having solar electricity for lighting. Link Community Development works with this school, and in the morning I had a look around. The facilities available in the School are quite basic, but the backdrop of the playground was pretty spectacular. Looking around the administration block, I was struck by the fact that they have 2 teachers assigned to their HIV/Aids work for a school of 400 primary aged children. I guess I just naively hoped these smiling kids would somehow be isolated from the horrendous infection rates in this part of rural South Africa.

Ntskeni

After Matatiele, I spent 2 days riding in the Ntskeni nature reserve. The area is characterised by marsh and grassland, but took on a strange post apocolyptic look in the wake of a recent unchecked bush fire that has left much of the area a blackened wasteland. In the morning I climbed up to the ridge line below the 2150m peak of Ntskeni itself and the view was simply breathtaking. I've come to expect not to see signs of human activity in the nature reserves, but the combination of the steep mountainous landscape and morning mist was stunning.





I got pretty lost trying to pick my way down the steep ridge, and strayed into a forestry area. Attempting to find a road to the foot of the mountain, I crossed a fallen tree that had been dragged across the track, and startled two men and four dogs sitting just across the path from me. I said hello and reached for my map to try and orientate myself, but no sooner had I opened my mouth they jumped up and ran away as if they had seen a ghost. I don't think it was the beard, but I can't be sure. The lodge manager of the previous night had told me about farmers from the nearby village of kwahoha cutting the fences of the reserve to illegally graze their cattle on the fertile nature reserve grassland. I suspect I must have disturbed some of these farmers.

And Finally

Well there were some sensible suggestions as to what is wrong with this house, but nobody got what I was aiming for. Usually if windows of an old house are bricked up then you see new bricks plugging the holes in old bricks, but this building is built with modern kiln fired bricks, but the windows are plugged with local stone and concrete. Weird no? I'm sorry if you were hoping for something funny...

There hasn't been much change in my finger tip situation, in that i still have pins and needles in the tips when I touch anything. If i don't regain feeling in my fingers soon I am going to sue The Freedom Challenge. David the trail organiser told me to be prepared for temperatures ranging from +35 to -5, but when I arrived at the farm on 'The Day It Snowed' the thermometer clearly showed -6, a low for which I was completely unprepared.

Apologies are due to many of you - thank you so much for all the emails I have received over the last couple of weeks, but with the lack of power and cell reception I have fallen behind in answering them, but I hope to catch up over the next week.

With only a couple of days left of the Freedom Trail to ride, my thoughts have already begun to turn towards the next and final phase of this journey, the haul to Malawi. I will try and think of something meaningful to say before then, to sum up the last 5 weeks.

Until then, reader.