The Road to Calvinia: June 14th to June 16th

June 14th, Day 3:

We departed Ceres around 9:30 after having breakfast with Martel and Bakki, who were just so nice and friendly to us.  It was sad to see them go. We biked for about 10 miles until we reached a huge mountain pass that went on and on for what seemed like 20 miles, yet was only around 5.  It took us about three hours to clear. When we had finally reached the top and started descending, Aaron's front tire convienently went flat and it took us an hour or so to figure out how to replace the tube. We finally went down the back side of the mountain, which led to R355, a dirt road that goes directly to Calvinia.

The R355, or as we like to call it "The Road to Calvinia," is about 150 miles long with no towns or villages in between, only farm houses and acres of unused land. We learned this the hard way, as we were looking for a town called "Hootentotskloof," which apparently does not exist (or is almost impossible to find). We ended up sleeping outside just off the dirt road that night.  The night sky was beautiful, but sleep was difficult as it got unbearably cold at night, even in our sleeping bags.

June 15th, Day 4:

We woke up the next morning freezing and exhausted, having gotten very little sleep due to the cold. We packed up our camp and headed off toward a town called Tweefontein, which was supposedly about 70 miles away, halfway to Calvinia. The day started nicely, and we were making good mileage, when suddenly a powerful headwind emerged. The dirt road itself was very difficult to travel through, and during the course of the day the wind gained energy until it reached a level that made bicycling virtually impossible. After several hours of fighting through the headwind, it became apparent that we were not going to make it to our destination and our food rations were almost out. However, a friendly passerby offered us some advice by informing us that there was a place we could spend the night called "Stonehenge" some 25 miles down the road. He then went on to contact them and make sure that they were expecting us, informing us that we would have a wonderful night there. We decided to gather our energy and make a final push.

Unfortunately the wind kept increasing in power and as darkness approached we were completely exhausted and demoralized by the prospect of having to endure another sleepless night in the cold, this time without any food. We were in bad shape, and decided our only option was to pray and hope someone would come to our rescue. After waiting on the roadside in the freezing wind for over an hour things had begun to feel hopeless, as not a single car had passed.  We were about ready to give up attempt to bicycle through the night, even though we could barely move in the wind.  At least this would keep us warm.

At the last minute a vehicle appeared on the horizon and we ran into the road in an attempt to flag it down.  Much to our misfortune, the car was just a small white mercedes sedan, unable to carry two bicycles. The car slowly passed and we were feeling pretty sorry for ourselves when suddenly the sedan reversed and came back to chat with us.

This is how we met Cobus and Tilla Hough. They said that they initially passed because they thought we were locals that were hiking to the next farm, but when they realized we were lost bicyclists they decided to help us out. They used their radio to call in a buggie (pickup truck) from their farm to come pick us up and within an hour it appeared. We loaded in our bikes, and very happily hopped into the vehicle and hitched a ride to their farm. However, our chererful mood began to change as we got closer to the farm. Cobus was in the buggie chatting and told us about a certain mysterious party of artists that gathers near his farm, claiming that they all congregate and get naked to drink and smoke and celebrate around a bonfire all night. Tonight, he told us, was the final night of the party, but his wife Tilla would never let him go! We began to get anxoius.

"Is this party you are referring to called stonehenge?" we asked.

"Yes! You've heard of it?" he replied in a thick Afrikaans accent.

"Sort of...," we replied.

When we arrived at their farm we felt pretty silly for not pushing through in order to make it to the greatest party that we had ever heard of, though we were still relieved by their hospitality. They had prepared two warm beds for us and a hot meal. After chatting to them for a while we learned that Cobus's family had originally arrived in South Africa in the first wave of VOC explorers, and that he was a 7th generation Burgher farmer. The very farm we were staying on had been passed down through his family for hundreds of years.  Sadly, we learned that Cobus had three daughters, and no son to inherit the land. He was slowly selling off his property. We offered to take it from him and carry on the legacy, but he declined. It had been a very long and draining day, but once again the hospitatility of the South African people had saved us, and we slept warm and sound that night.

June 16th, Day 5:

We had a great night sleep on the Cobus farm that night, especially compared to our previous night out in the cold on the side the road. Tilla made us a hot breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, and jam. We also had Rooibos tea that they grow on their farm, which we are now obsessed with. Tilla told us that she was not going let us on go on with our trip and that she was going to phone our parents.  She insisted that they drive us to Calvinia, because the dirt road only got worse from there on.  We were both still very exhausted and accepted the ride. It was very nice of them to drive us the 60 miles or so to Calvinia, where we checked into a little hotel and cleaned our clothes, bikes, and bodies. We will always appreciate the kindness of Tilla and Cobus, as we would have been in really bad shape had they not showed up and rescued us. Their benevolence, along with the selflessness of people we have met throughout South Africa, demonstrates there are good people wherever you go in the world.

Calvinia was an interesting little town with one restuarant and a handful of little shops and guesthouses. It was nice being in a place with people and access to food and water, so we would have been happy with pretty much anything. The hotel we stayed in did all of our laundry and we brought our bicycles into the shop to be maintained, while we showered and rested in our beds. We watched some TV as well. "The Holiday" was the only movie on and we are both big fans of Cameron Diaz. The restaurant was serving these huge burgers with beef, chicken, egg, and bacon, which were very delicious and much better than the energy bar dinner we had the night we stayed outside in the Karoo.

It was also Eric's birthday the next day and we were not sure where exactly we were going to be so we decided to celebrate at dinner this night in Calvinia. The hotel we stayed in had a nice restuarant, which makes two restuarants in Calvinia, and they prepared us a nice meal and did a little something special for dessert. They made us a great malva pudding. I definitely recommend it to everyone.  They also made us a chocolate mousse with a candle on top. We had a great dinner and Eric was very happy that we were able to celebrate his birthday in Calvinia, especially now that he knows how his actual birthday would go. We went to sleep early to prepare for another day of bicycling...