Disappointing Dirt - March 22

After last night’s torrential rain and storms I was up and ready quite early this morning. My tent was fantastic – everything inside has remained dry. We have 60 km of pavement ahead this morning and the promise of some off road this afternoon – I am really looking forward to that! We leave as a group, Scott, Jorg, Paul, Adam and Steve – and ride pretty fast all morning (I was hurting so thought it was a hard ride – everyone else seemed to think it quite easy!!) the road was pretty good – a bit bumpy but we had our big tyres on so that was good – just more difficult to get your speed going. Lunch was at 60 km. I was excited as we had to go off down a muddy trail which looked good for the afternoon!! After lunch Paul leaves and we all hop on our bikes to follow – probably about 200 m behind. The first 500 m was really muddy and sloppy – really good ………. – then ahead of us we heard Paul shout with delight:” Yes – look at this …” He has pulled out on to the road and we realize the muddy trail was just a short cut through to the main road – an extremely smooth fravel road!! Smoother than the one we had been on in the morning in fact! So – there we are – all flying along faster than the morning’s speed!! Unfortunately I was beginning to feel really ill – especially my stomach – and was struggling to keep up. Jorg and Scott took turns at the front going as fast as possible – I just concentrated on hanging in there. Although I was disappointed in the lack of dirt the road was quite amazing – heading in to a Game Reserve – bushes and trees on either side of the road. Bright yellow dirt again. The last 20 km did deteriorate but it was too late to make any difference – Scott and Jorg were going strong and Paul had no difficulty keeping up. I just hung in with the group and was pleased to make it through to the end of the day! Camp was at a Game Post – which we more or less took over for the night!