7: Nomwe, Supa, Heyali, Sewe: Cederberg Wilderness Area

A 7:00 start this morning as we are here 2 nights and don’t need to knock the tents down. Nonetheless everyone was up at the usual time. Even though we are in a wilderness area the valleys are full of farms. Camps seem to be a side biz for such ventures. Lots of barnyard noises last night.

Our destination today was a high pass with a couple stops on the return ride…

…but first, the morning started with a short steep climb - today is all gravel - challenging as always but i pulled my back setting up the tent a few days ago and am wondering if i have re-injured my ribs. Had a hard time catching my breath but eventually made it. Then there was a white knuckle descent for about 12 or so kilometres and lots of washboards making hard to see the surface detail with shakey eyes. As in Indonesia, i found myself praying for an uphill! Fortunately, i have excellent brakes and kept my speed below 25 km/hr the whole time. As the hill flattened out, some guys doing construction started waving at me. Sue had come off her bike and hurt her shoulder - happened right at an inn so they brought out a bag of ice for her right away. Sue, being a nurse, told us to continue that she was just bruised and would hop on the bus.

I pressed on with Charles and Rea but decided to pack it in when the bus caught up with us because the heat had kicked in. Then the bus punctured a tire setting us back a half hour from the lead cyclists so they started descending and met us. Because the road is so narrow, we had to drive to top to turn around - got the view without the work!

The little inn where Sue wiped out was a pleasant little place to stop for a coffee and ice cream. Jacarandas are in bloom - love the purple. Saw these in Buenos Aires in November as well back in 2010 - must be a southern hemisphere thing. Apparently there is an annual festival here similar to the cherry blossom festival in the northern world.

Sign of the day re: salad

Our first “stop” of the day was the Stadsaal Cave and Rock Art site. 5000 years ago the Bushmen made their mark:

A short hike away was a fabulous other worldly “cave” area. It was more holes-in-rocks than caves but the rocks were fabulous shapes and colours as was the vegetation. If i was travelling on my own, i could have easily spent the day there. The clouds both added drama and took away heat! Could easily have been used as a star wars/treck film set.

Baboon poop. Good roughage in their diets.

After all the hard cycling and hiking it was time for a wine tasting at Cederberg wines, South Africa’s highest altitude vineyard. I wasn’t expecting much given the remote location but this turned out to be hands down the best wine tasting i have ever experienced. Even seasoned Aussie wine collectors Paul and Sandra were impressed. A series of 8 magic elixirs over 2 hours appeared. It’s not exported or shipped to canada and since im not flying direct its a one time fling! If you love wine and come across anything Cederberg, grab it.