Back to my roots

Twas the night before Xmas and all that … but its been a crazy and fun few days getting into the Xmas spirit and away from Cape Town to Pietermaritzburg. We started off with a ‘quick’ road trip to Vermaaklikheid for rope swings, bike rides, marshmallows and all that goes with that …

 

 

 

I, however, ended up being tethered to the toilet with a virulent, but thankfully 24 hour, bug! Not a great start. But thankfully it passed … literally and figuratively! Anyway, 3am Friday we’re back on the road for the long haul north to PMB. Taking the back roads makes the journey so much better – you see so much more of the country and even fewer cars!

 

 

 

Pietermaritzburg is where i grew up, sort of attended high school and fell in love with bike riding. The combination of rolling hills of tarmac and forest tracks as far as the eye can see make this the place to be for avid riders. It never fails to thrill me to head back on old trails or asphalt routes and see the formative bumps, roots and twists and turns that only familiarty can breed. No contempt here … just super fond memories.

I’m trying to take part in an online festive season challenge called the Rapha Festive 500 - basically you have to ride 500 kilometres from the 23 to 31 December. Well day 1 was spent driving the FunBus to PMB – 14 hours and some change with stops. So day 2 would be tough but had to be done or else i’d lose another day – best thing for it – two rides! One tar, one dirt.

The Dardanelles is a fairly well known loop heading out towards Richmond then back to Cato Ridge and finishing up Polly Shorts – made famous by the Comrades Marathon. I think i rode this loop for the first time somewhere around 1990 … back when Giro Air Attack helmets were the rage. 44 kilometres of rolling hills make it a great loosener and i really needed it.

 

 

 

 

 

Next up was a great MTB ride in the forests of Hilton … a place where I started to ride a mountainbike proper. Also the early ’90s but its amazing how the tracks are embedded in your memory. Yes some of the routes have changed, but the overall feel of the place has remained unchanged through all the years. Its amazing … and a thick pea soup mist sure added to the ambience!

 

 

 

So two rides in one day … must be Xmas! Next up the real thing. Happy holidays to you and yours!

G

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