Day Twenty One: Garies to Vanrynsdorp/Calvinia (147 kms)

Today was a loooong struggle for the guys. They cycled for 7½ hours and they were exhausted at the end of the day. It was once again a very hilly road and the wind started making itself felt to the extent that the guys had to pedal on the down hills and only manage 14 kph! We knew we were in the Western Cape for the first time.

We stayed with the guys until 13h15 and then split from them to go on to Calvinia where we had a workshop planned. Nic had been kept busy with a pomegranate (Leigh thought she was a genius!) but we were both thankful for the leather seats in the Honda! When the pomegranate no longer worked, he was allowed to chew a small piece of gum (a bubblegumpie) which once again kept him entertained as he blew one tiny bubble after the next.

Once we left the road to Vanrynsdorp, we climbed a monster of a pass before approaching Niewoudtville where we heard the ominous beep of a car warning sound. We were on zero petrol with 5 kms to go. But no worries we easily made it to Niewoudtville where we thankfully found a petrol station. Alas it was deserted and we had 72 kms to go to Calvinia. It was Sunday afternoon after all. It was 14h30 and the workshop was due to start at 15h00. We were not sure what to do so decided to look for another petrol station or find someone who could tell us where we could find one. Well we could not find anyone. The streets were deserted and our petrol tank was empty.

I phoned ahead to warn the organisers we would be late but there was no answer so I sent an sms. We continued riding around the ghost town of Niewoudtville. As we were cruising past the huge NG Kerk, both Leigh and I had the same thought. The dominee langsaan die kerk would surely help us. We stopped outside what we were thought was the manse and found a young couple who were moving in to house. They were sympathetic to our story and were quite ready to siphon petrol from their car and decant it into ours. In the meantime though, the young husband found a 10 litre jerry can of petrol and poured that into our tank. He did not want payment for it so we were soon on our way again. However before we reached Calvinia we again hit the zero mark. This time we continued driving as if nothing was wrong, found the community hall and held a small workshop with 8 people who waited for us.

We then found the Steenkamp Guest House and waited for the guys to join us. It was unanimously decided to walk across the road to a pizzeria for supper.

The Steenkamp Gastehuis was unforgettable with its plaster of Paris mermaid on the wall and a host who had a badly tattooed heart with angels on his shin (a new one on me!).

Tomorrow will be an early start because Pieter’s liefie is flying to Cape Town to join up with us.