450 km, 821 km from Cape Town

DESERT

The long road through the northern cape to the Orange River today, was done in much cooler weather than we expected, so it was winter gloves and fleecy tops under the biking gear untill lunch time and as we descended into the ancient river depression the temperature rose incrementally and at the wind-still border post at Noordoewer, it was plenty hot. The easy and friendly border and customs business done we crossed the very full and fast flowing Orange and into Namibia. Today riding up the empty N7 was easy and fun, made so by the innovations we have added to our riding, mainly the comms and the cruise control which allows you to rest both arms. We camped at a fancy resort on the river and enjoyed our first river swim.

371 km, 371 km from Cape Town

FIRST DAY

After a pleasant and warm farewell at Blouberg, we were off. In perfect riding weather we meandered through the hinterland of the the Swartland, a lot of it on gravel and with no real time constraints it was a good oppurtunity to test the bikes and equipment. The bikes are in great shape and the communication system is wonderful, some tweaking is going to be neccessary, though as the helmet lead is very long and as we discovered, if it unplugs it is long enough for the end to drag on the road. A laden bike behaves very differently in sand was another discovery we made and we all wobbled a bit when the gravel was loose but the roads generally were a treat and we all had a great time. We are overnighting at a comfortable and pleasant bed and breakfast in Nuwerus, which is not much of a town, with a voters roll of only 250 souls as the landlord has informed us.