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.