Fri 26 Oct 2018, Day 327
Staying at Carl Barnard’s home, Bloemfontein
Distance 95 + 13291 = 13386
Average 14.6
Time 6 h 28 m
Total from Amsterdam 18786
Location S29.033295, E26.412306
Packed up at 04h00 with dogs barking nearby. They’re not used to two lights (headlamps) moving around in the distance making them jittery and thinking there are possibly homeless people squatting on Mr Pienaar’s property ??
Left 04h58 and in the paddock out front we saw a foal, obviously a new arrival, with mum horse coaxing her baby to stand … a lovely start to the day. With plasters on our cycle pimples we climbed onto our wheels and hit the road. Bloemfontein is 100 km from where we’d slept. We took it easy as my legs were filled with lactic acid and had to start slowly. Peter felt like this yesterday but his legs were fine today.
At the 21 km, 06h30, we stopped for a cup of tea at the Kom-ma-weer Padstal. This little roadside place is open 24/7. Back on coarse tar as this slows us down terribly, plays havoc on the cycle pimples and is terrible as it gives us a very bumpy ride. The surface improved after 25 km to smaller stones used to tar the road and the improved surface was pretty much like this until we reached Bloemfontein.
Peter had contacted a Warmshowers guy, Carl Barnard a few days ago to possibly give us a bed for a few days, and when we stopped at a picnic spot for a sandwich he received a reply from Carl to say we could stay. Carl and his son are on a walking trail somewhere up north. We came across an inventer, Adam du Toit a few km’s from Bloemfontein who had built the single speed recumbent bike he was riding and was trying to market it to us? Single speed, no way José.
Carl’s sister and brother in law, Duola and Charles Kridiotis collected us from Makro, took us grocery shopping at Pick ‘n Pay and brought us to Carl’s home which is on the Modder River and where the Maselspoort Resort is located. It was comfortable travelling the 17 km ride to Carl’s house in a comfortable bakkie with aircon, bikes on a Thule bike rack. Some parts were on very corrugated gravel so Peter and I were two very happy bunnies.
As Carl returns late on Monday, we’ll stay an extra day in order to meet him. Peter and I are foster parents again, this time to Boss and Olive (Great Danes) and two Jack Russells, Harley and another which Duola could not remember his name. They’re no trouble at all… no name Jack Russell lay half on my lap while watching TV. We had Olive sleeping on a sheep skin mat next to my side of the bed and ‘no name’ also on a sheep skin on Peter’s side. Olive made grunting and snoring noises during the night but we were so tired that we only vaguely heard these during the night.
