Botrivier Bliss

The weekends are rolling by almost too quickly. Rochelle booked a weekend away at Kolkol just outside Botriver some months ago and we both needed the R&R after a pressure filled week. The accommodation consists of a few log cabins that the owner of the farm built. The basics are provided for in style and with a hot tub on the deck and a fire going in the evenings it was pure bliss. Botriver is also conveniently situated close to Thandi trails (14km), Lebanon (18km) and Oak Valley (24km). Our hosts were friendly and helpful with me enquiring about the possibility to link up any of the farm trails to Groenlandberg, but it seemed like that would not be possible. 

Saturday morning I took the opportunity to cycle to Thandi Trails (22km from Kolkol) and decided to do the full loop. My Garmin unfortunately decided to stop working half way through the ride, but lately I've been less concerned about the numbers and focussing on enjoying the ride. 

Thandi trails consists of fun filled singletrack sections broken up by some short and steep climbs. Tight turns, some good switchbacks and twisty single track sections makes the 25 odd kms quite tough. I played around with the Command seatpost that the Stumpy was specced with and was trying to work out how best to use the equipment in race conditions. I also managed to spot some funky mushrooms. 

At Blossom Restaurant where you buy and return your bike board I chatted with some of the other riders who where out on the trail. We shared a coke and some stories and headed off in our own directions afterwards. The ride back to Botrivier ended at the Hotel where I had the best Burger for a whole R35! Rochelle and I both had a Burger and I finished the ride off with an ice cold beer too. You've got to love small towns. 

Back at Kolkol we enjoyed the peace and quiet and opted for an early night. 

Sunday's ride turned out to be such a wonderful surprise. We were quite a large group (about 20 riders) and headed from Botrivier to Greyton. I expected to simply take the back roads, but we ended up doing a 30km stretch of jeep track that was simply amazing. It followed the Railway line from Botrivier inland and we made our way up the climb each at our own pace. I opted to take it easy and had a really nice time catching up with some friends. 

20km in to the ride the rider in-front of me hit a rut badly and went down. I knew that it was going to be bad by the way she fell and the bike was flung from her cleated feet while she was hitting the ground. I had enough time to pick a line past rider and bike without hitting any of the other riders taking evasive action. Fortunately Michelle got up and after doing a full check of bike and rider we continued. I did realise that her tyres were pumped at about 3bar each which probably contributed to the accident and took it down to a more manageable pressure. 

The second 30km flew by and very soon we found ourselves at Searles in Greyton having lunch. The poor waitress and rest of the restaurant staff never knew what hit them. 20 hungry cyclists all demanding food and drink simultaneously sent them into shock. I suspect that they still have not fully recovered from the ordeal. Werner and some of the others were brave enough to cycle back to Greyton, some opted to arrange with family to meet them in Greyton. I opted for the latter and was quite grateful for the ride back.