Day Five: Delareyville to Vryburg (Good Friday)

We were very happy to check out of Doxa B&B in Delareyville this morning and we had our earliest start so far at the sparrow’s hour of 06h30. The main street in the town must be the worst in the country as far as potholes are concerned – it was in fact featured in the Beeld newspaper after townies ‘planted’ cannas in them, took photos and sent them off to the newspaper. Three kilometres later however and we were back on the smooth N14 again.

Pieter’s knee was not feeling great this morning and he had an upset tummy so he took a break from cycling for a while. He joined up with Shaun 30 kms into the day. There was a strong chilly crosswind today which the cyclists were really aware of, specially with each passing car.

Friends of Roland, Roy and Val Madden, appeared next to us just before Vryburg. They drove up from Jozi to have breakfast with us and it was a complete surprise for everyone and very encouraging for Shaun and Pieter to have ‘visitors’. They reached Vryburg at 10h05 and averaged 29kph from Delareyville! It was a Good Friday in more ways than one!

We arrived at wonderful accommodation in Vryburg - the Lockerbie Lodge where Cecil John RHODES used to stay on his travels. Parts of the lodge were built in 1890. Thank you to Lefras and Carina Fourie for sponsoring tonight's accommodation and to Theresa and Wessel de Jongh for organising it for us (Wessesl is the brother of Theresa de Jongh, one of our parents!).

Also, thank you very much to:

·         Salome for sponsoring our accommodation at her Libertas Guest House in Mafikeng

·         Sandra Meyer from Jhb for sponsoring our accommodation in Delareyville

·         Roy and Val Madden for visiting us in Vryburg and for standing us to Spur burgers