27th November - Storms River Valley to George (Day 3)

Form the Jack Russell (Selly Bron):

Day three saw an early start…departure at 7am, with the promise of many hours in the saddle. It was to be a long leg…about 160kms to George. There were a few stops along the way, and also a few hills…rolling hills is the expression, but the consensus was that they rolled in the wrong direction…only uphill. The evening was spent waiting for dinner…the restaurant was very busy, and they were really in the kak timing-wise. When the food did arrive, it was pretty good, but by then, everyone was exhausted, and they faded pretty quickly…not even time for the fines…I had to store them for the next evening. The day saw lots of “Keep Lefts”, lots of zooming up next riders with the BMW, and also the use of cyclist language…index finger raised above your head…meaning “Single File”

From Blade (the fat ozzie):
This started off as a great day. Slightly overcast, not too hot gradual undulating hills. Nothing too tough until the last third of the ride. Before that, we pulled into our first two stops with not much pain. From there though the ride got tough climbing out of Kynsna, then out of Plett (thanks Deano, even though you were a little late - had to ride my fat ass up two thirds of that hill with a headwind - einah!), and then the coup de grace, kaaimans river pass.

F**k me that was a ball breaker to say the least. I looked at this thing after doing 150 kms and said "not a f**k"... thanks to the King of George he talked me into doing it, helping me up the first two thirds of the hill with our diminutive leader picking me up for the last third of the hill.

To put this into context - he weighs 70kgs and I weigh a feather-lite 100kgs! Cesar was pushing almost 50% of his body weight EXTRA up the hardest climb of the entire ride from PE to CTN. (Dean and Cesar - send me your bank details!)

When I eventually got to the top I almost up-chucked and couldnt really see much. I had properly snapped in two (admittedly large pieces). Luckily the rest of the ride was only another 5kms of flat into Dean's restaurant.

Again Foxy and Cesar presented the message to Dean's staff, with Deano pitching in with his leadership qaulities. It was clear to many of us that The King of George commanded much respect from his cheering staff.

We finished off with a dinner at some Italian restaurant. Great food just a pity both us and the Dimension Data riders hit the tables at the same time meaning looong waits for chow. The Silent Assasain (Laurence Morriss) and I sat and gut-wrenched laughed (yet again) at Chas and The Tracer Bullet trade verbal barbs and funnies. We chowed down and then Bullet started giving me bedroom eyes again so went back to sleep...