Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 77, December 2015 | Page 55

The scenery is very austere but beautiful and
rugged. We saw a pair of Verreaux Eagles and
their nest. We were lucky with the weather; it was
overcast so not too hot.
It even rained a few drops to which Keith the
Irishman commented that Lizzie had said he need
not bring rain gear as it doesn’t rain here. I think
the drops evaporated before they had a chance
to wet anything, so rain gear was defiantly not
needed.
After about 40 kilometres we loaded the bikes,
climbed into the van and headed to Augrabies
Falls for a picnic lunch and a visit to the famous
65-metre waterfall. They say that at the bottom
of the churning cauldron of the Falls is a fortune
of diamonds washed down by the river, but we
didn’t go swimming to investigate.
After lunch, we cycled through forests of small
Kokerbome (Quiver trees) to our overnight
destination, Klein Pella, a guest house on a
beautiful date farm. They fed us lovely fresh farm
food which was welcome after our ride and we
complimented it with some lovely local wines.
Chris briefed us on the second day’s ride. We
were going to ride through the date plantations
and vineyards of the farm down to the Orange
River. There we would stop for coffee and biscuits.
Then we would ride out of the valley again.
During this time, he would assess our skills, to see if
we could or if we wanted to, ride the next section
to Pella via the flood plain of the river. That set
of some alarm bells. Chris and Lizzie are very
knowledgeable about the area and frequently
stopped to give us interesting facts regarding the
date farm, which has over 1 700 palms, and the
natural surroundings.
We were then all declared ‘able’ for the next part
of the ride and then given the decision to choose
as the