Cycled to Pretoria and back to farm on the R101

Posted on Mar 23, 2015 by krfarmer

I cycled to Pretoria this last weekend. I have been wanting to do this for quite sometime. I have been putting it off as there were some concerns in my mind. I was concerned about the amount of traffic along the routes that I would need to take. Then there was the crime issues.

Much to my surprise the concerns were all in vain. I have traveled with a car and motor bike on the R101 before. However traveling the route by bicycle gives a whole different feeling. There is no doubt a lot of traffic. However they gave me enough room to ride with exception of one or two trucks. There are a lot of 60 km/h and 80 km/h zones, resulting in traffic moving slower.

People along the road were friendly and often welcomed me. Many times I felt as if I was traveling in one of the neighbouring countries. There was water been carried in 20 litre drums which can be seen in other places in Africa. The zinc houses and half build run down houses can also be seen other places in Africa.There is however evidence of money coming from the big cities. There were the fancy cars and houses here and there that shout out income from the big cities.

I passed the Carousel Casino near Hammanskraal. This is were many people go and gamble away their money thus enriching a few with their lost money. Just across the road is a poor suburb called Carousel view. Most likely where most of the workers of the Carousel live. At lest there is some employment for the local community.

There is some farming along the road. There is one well known farmer that does crops under centre pivot and has some processing plants. I also passed a few animal feed plants. Farming on small farms takes place almost up to Onderstepoort. This is the main veterinary training and research station of South Africa.

After riding out of the drought stricken Springbok flats I rode over Magaliesberg into down town Pretoria to get a heavy afternoon down pour of rain. Which resulted in the streets been under water and having to take off my sunglasses, because I could not see.

To round the trip off. There was a hot head wind all the way home. Nothing like some good training conditions. Nice interesting ride of 260 km. Taking me through the farm lands, poverty suburbs and the Capital city of South Africa. What a contrast.

Vulture restaurant

Posted on Mar 15, 2015 by krfarmer

I have been establishing a vulture restaurant for the last year and a half. It took sometime to get colonies to frequent the restaurant. There were 1 to 10 that came frequently. The Marabou storks started to come when the first colony came.

I think what helped was a visit to Vulpro at the Hartabeespoort dam. They are a vulture conservation organization. They gave me a few tips on what vultures like and do not like. Even now the colony likes to come on hot days when they can use hot air thermals to take them long distances in search of food. When it is cold and cloudy I put out less for the vultures. So that the few vultures that come every day have something to feed on.

I have counted up to 85 Marabou storks and 60 yellow-billed kites on a day. The vultures are a little more timid and take to the air when you come close enough to count. There was a day when a vet counted about a hundred feeding and about 50 circling in the air.

Did you know there are only about 2400 white back vultures left in the world? That means if somebody puts poison on a carcass they could easily kill off one tenth of the population at one sitting. Scary thing to think.

My apology for the quality of the photos. A Samsung galaxy cannot zoom in close enough for photos of birds. I do hope you get a feeling of what I see on a daily basis.

SWAHILI GAME LODGE

Posted on Mar 12, 2015 by krfarmer

The owner of Swahili game lodge invited my family and I to come around and visit. I help to supply meat for his lions. He has started a Lion breeding project to try establish the original genetic blood line of the area. The lion numbers have been dwindling and together with that comes a smaller gene pool. Resulting in the lion becoming more susceptible to other cat diseases. He is now hand rearing the cubs to make sure of their survival. His intention in the end is to turn the lions out into his game farm once the lions are adapted to the environment.

He gave my wife ,daughter and I a chance to play with the cubs. These are some amazing little animals. The have these big paws with razor-sharp claws. There is now way of getting in contact with them without getting a few scratches.

Then there was the Zebra foul that was bottle feed as its mother was killed by lightning.

Also heard some sad news that the next door game farm had two rhino poached the previous week. Now this week there was another rhino poached on another farm in the area. Looks like the poachers are focusing on our area now. This is so sad. This terrible scourge is destroying the rhino population and one day there will be none left to show the future generations.

All in all it was a wonderful day finished with a game drive.

New Cycle Tour recruits

Posted on Feb 25, 2015 by krfarmer

Last weekend I went with two couples on their first mini cycle tour. They had just got their bicycles and gear together. Now this was their first test to see what they need to carry with them on a New Zealand tour. They did 45 km to Nylsvlei where they camped the night and rode home the next day.

Must say I think they did very well on a day that reached 42 degrees celsius. The evening finished well with a very enjoyable braai (BBQ). All brought along something to eat. It turned out to be a very enjoyable meal with even a cup of cinnamon milk before bed.

I wish them well on their tour and hope they find the wonders of the world out there.

First 200 km for the a day.

Posted on Feb 16, 2015 by krfarmer

Testing myself to see if I have the staying power to do a long single stage race. Saturday before last I set out across a few dirt roads then on to some paved roads in the direction of Thabazimbi. I passed Bella Bella where I purchased some food for lunch then chose the Thabazimbi road. Not a good road for cycling as there is no sholder. The vehicales tend to push you off the road.

On route I passed a few well known lodges. One been Mabalingwe where we sometimes take foreign contractors that do work for us. Then there was the turning to Mabula and Adventures with Elephants. This is an area that is Maleria free and close enough to drive out from Johannesburg or Pretoria.

I turned back home when reaching the sign that said Municipality of Thabazimbi.

Did 200 km for the day. Temperature went to 44 degrees Celsius. Used the heart rate monitor to make sure of a even work out. Found the distance was not a problem. Only problem was to get myself refueled. Will have to look into food that can help me to sustain performance.

Things look good. Almost ready to take the step to register.

Tour de Dad 2014 video

Posted on Jan 24, 2015 by krfarmer

The long awaited home made video of my Dad’s cycling trip is now on youtub. Take a look.

Druiwefees fietswedren

Posted on Jan 11, 2015 by krfarmer

It was the Druiwefees festival in Modimolli this past week. To close the festival off there was a road cycle race and a mountain bike race. I did the longest road race which was 105 km. Am quite happy with myself as I raised my average speed to 24 km/h. This was done on my mountain bike with Maxxi cross mark tyres.

I also did the mountain bike race of the longest distance of 50 km. The results are not out on the internet yet. However I am very pleased as it was my second mountain bike race. This was quite a technical ride compared to my first race.

Mountain bike race was at Bosfontein caravan park. I was very pleased to find a well run little out of the way caravan park. Bosfontein is nestled next to a mountain that is covered in trees and has been stocked with game animals. They have also laid out a mountain bike route that you can ride when camping. Very nice getaway form the city. Has a central swimming pool where the children can also have a good time.

The course criss crossed rivers over small wooden bridges. Then there was endless twists between the trees. Not giving any time to fall asleep on your bike. Then there was ‘Martelbult’ which challenged your hill climbing legs. Only way out was on the granny gears. Then there was a rock decent which lead to some carefull riding. At one point I thought an antelope was charging me, as what happened to that one mountain bike rider on youtub. However it was just spooked by a rider coming across the opening.

All in all The road race was painful and the mountain bike race was very nice and enjoyable.

2015 tour plan

Posted on Jan 5, 2015 by krfarmer

New year has begun and it is that time of the year when I have to submit my leave plan for the year. Is there anybody out there that would like to do a tour with me? This way we can get our times to come together. This is often the biggest hill to get over. Most times people cannot join you as their time table does not match yours. Unfortunately I am limited in time. I get four weeks a year but also need to spend some time with my family. Thus it would be nice to do a two to three week tour. That is also good for most people who have a real job and family. We cannot all be vagabonds.

The second question would be where to next. People are already asking me where my next crazy adventure will be. Well it could be a pleasure ride or a mad rush to get to a destination, to fit the most amount of km in before the leave runs out. I really enjoyed the slow ride with my Dad last month. To be honest I feel a lot safer on the roads outside South Africa. As the traffic is less and they travel slower. On the other had it my be time to get that book everybody is talking about. Riding the Dragon’s Spine book uses back roads to travel the length of South Africa. That way we can get away from the traffic.

Well send me a comment or a tweet. Let me know if you available and what tour you would like to do. Then we can start planning.

Life across the karoo, in broad strokes

Posted on Dec 27, 2014 by krfarmer

What a wonderful post of their tour in South Africa.

gypsy by trade

Prince Albert- Willowmore- Steytlerville- Jansenville- Graaff-Reinet- Nieu Bethesda- Middelburg- Steynsburg- Burgersdorp- Jamestown- Roussow- Barkley East- Wartrail- Tele River

There are small towns and expansive farms with teams of farmworkers in blue cotton coveralls slowly working under the sun in full-brimmed caps. There are afternoon winds and windless starry midnights. Kudu sausage and lamb chops on our plates indicate the presence of wild game and managed stock, especially Merino sheep and Angora goats. Twice, antelope race alongside the road excited by my 18mph presence, afraid or unable to cross the barbed wire fence. Once, I reach past 35mph with the assistance of a powerful tailwind, gaining on the full-tilt sprint of the animal. At last, side by side, it cuts right toward the fence and jumps. Tired or distracted or unable to jump high enough, it somersaults into barbed wire in a flurry of fur. It watches as I disappear down…

View original post 4,300 more words

Tour de Dad

Posted on Dec 26, 2014 by krfarmer

Just finished a tour with my Dad so have called it Tour de Dad. I did 500 km and my Dad did 315 km. Very proud of my 76 year old Dad. I will make a page for this tour. I have already begun with the video. We landed up cutting the tour short as his circulation in his legs was giving him a hard time up the hills. Never the less he did an outstanding attempt for somebody of his age.

There were people along the way that thought we were doing it for a charity. However it was just a good father and son outing. Why do we need to do this type of thing for charity? Time to get out of your chairs and do it for yourself. For those of you who are not out riding your bicycles, it is now time to start.

Then there were wonderful people who stopped and give motivation along the way. It is nice to find good people out in the world. Gives you hope for the future of our world. There are people out there that are driven by more than just money. They have good hearts.

As always we learned things along the road. We are suffering from electrical load shedding in South Africa at the moment. As there is not enough generation capacity to cope with demand. It feels as the government has not been putting in enough energy as they should to correct this problem. However we found km after km of new road surface that had been laid to help the trucks that transport coal to the power stations. Then the volume of trucks transporting coal was impossible to count. There was a steady stream of trucks all the way from Balmoral to Volksrust. The amount of money that must be paid to keep this stream running is beyond my comprehension.

Pay a visit to my Bicycle trips page. Tour de Dad is now under construction.