Have added more information to the page Joburg 2 East London. Have added a route plan with a link to Google. That way you can zoom in and out to see more details. Route can be changed to meet any needs that may arise.
Joburg 2 East London
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Cycling with my Dad
Not many sons can say that their Dad is their best friend. When I was a teenager we used to do training runs together. In those years he and I built a house from scratch. We stood shoulder by shoulder and laid bricks. This gave us time to talk about all sorts of things.
At the age of 40 he started running to keep fit. He went on to complete three Comrades marathons. This is a world renowned ultra marathon. He got three medals: one silver and two bronze. He kept running to keep himself fit until the age of 70. Where upon his circulation prohibited him from running. This forcing him to start walking. Last November (7 months back) I gave him my bicycle that I rode in Zimbabwe and Mozambique with. Then he could just ride 2.5 km. This week he came to visit and rode a 21 km gravel road with an average of 13 km/h at the age of 75. So nice to be sharing a sport with my Dad again.
Joburg 2 East London
Have started a new page on my blog for next trip in December 2014. I am looking for companions to ride with me from Johannesburg to East London (Settlers country). I will be adding more details of the tour from time to time. So keep an eye on this page and send me comments if you are interested in joining me.
Waterberg activities
Have been on holiday this week. I decided to do some activities in the area where we stay. We have done some day trips to game lodges in the Waterberg area.
First was Thandile guest farm (www.tandilecountrylodge.co.za) where we did some horse riding. The owner manages the lodge himself. He has a passion for horses. He has trained all his horses to work with herding cattle and guest rides. The horses have a very gentle nature and are very aware of your riding skills. They adjust according to the feel which you give them. So if you just want to plod along they will do it or if you want to get some wind in your hair, off they go.
All horses range free in the bushveld hills and are rounded up and saddled for you. So you need to make bookings with Cobus before hand. The roads wind up from the valley bottom to rocky hills where giraffe, kudu,impala,klipspringer and other bushveld animals range. What is nice, time is no problem. If you want to 
ride for one hour or three it is the same price. Cobus makes sure the horse matches you and that all saddle adjustment are made to fit you.
There are also marked out mountain bike trails. Be prepared for lots of loose rocks.
He has some nice rooms in a very old house that has been renovated. However be prepared for work in progress around the lodge area. There is a restaurant area that is your home away from home. The cats and dogs make you feel part of the family. Very family orientated guest farm.
Today we did the Zipline tour (http://waterbergzip.co.za) at Tabo Monate game lodge. It has a set of 11 ziplines criss crossing a valley.Tour takes about two and half hours.
For a person like me that is a little afraid of heights it was a good challenge. The guides were very friendly and safety continuously. This was a wonderful experience. Would recommend it to anybody spending a weekend up in the area. Longest Zipline was about 190 m.
Was good to experience what this area has to offer. Most of the time I am riding my bicycle along the roads and just see the signs for the different lodges.
New domain
To make it easier for people to find me I have decided to get my own domain. My new blog is http://longdaysafaris.com. If you search on google you just need to put in longdaysafaris.com. Or type the full domain name on top bar. It is linked to old blog name longdaysafaris.wordpress.com.
Waterberg road trip(Nyl zen oog)
Thought to do a few long day rides this long weekend. So off I cycled to Nylstroom and purchased some slime, knowing my back wheel was dry. Using some insulation tap strapped it to my carrier. Next stop was the biltong shop (beef jerky shop) to make sure the stomach had something to work on. Planning to ride for a full day with no stop for lunch. Then a little extra water just to fill up the water used to ride to Nylstroom.
I love the signs I find along the road. Take a look at this.
Every winter there is run away fires that are very difficult to stop in these mountains. They sometimes burn for days. Normally fanned by a strong wind. They often burn down game lodges and farm houses. Not easy to get into the hills with fire fighting vehicles so they have to fight on foot. Due to the trees and wind these types of fires are best put out by fire fighting vehicles and helicopters. However cost of helicopters is prohibitive.
There were some nice climbs with some good solid gravel. I can see in the rainy season the road gets washed away in places. May get a little slippery. So if you want to try the Nyl zen oog road winter would probably be better.
Interesting to watch the farms and lodges along this road. Most farms were small and can be seen that their economic viability has been pushed to the limit.
Most turning to a mix of guest farms and agricultural practices. Others going all the way over to game farming. These tending to be up on the hills where irrigation water is limiting.
Coming near the top of the mountains my water started to get low. I thought to get some water from the streams. As water is seeping straight from the mountains. At every stream I thought no let’s get at the next. To bad as at the top of the hill there was no nice clean streams to drink from. The top of the hills opened up to open cattle country. 
The road became very sandy with big corrugations making going very slow. Just had to ration water and eat some biltong to get the mouth wet.
Came across the main water supply dam for the town of Nylstroom. What a nice deep body of water between the hills. Having steep cliffs coming up to wall it in.
Name of dam is Donkerpoort.
Round about here the bicycle wheel bearing started to give the same feeling as two weeks back. That time one ball bearing had worn flat on one side and had to be replaced. Put wheels back together after greasing them and all looked good until now. Estimated to be about 60 km from home so had a look and decided that I could not do much. Wind had come up and fortunately turning to ward home it helped. Knowing the condition of the bearing I set out on the tar road home from Nylstroom. Making it 132 km for the day with average speed 19.6 km/h.
Stripping wheel down at home found the axil cone has developed some rough spots. Will have to make a trip to town, to get some spares. Looks like Jimmy cycles is seen a lot of me lately.
Waterberg roads
This weekend rode bicycle into Nylstroom and did some business. After which I took the Vaalwater road. Just out of town I found this new sign. 
This touches my heart as I am a farmer and people do not know what goes into putting a plate of food on the table. Some way down the road I took a right turn at this sign.
Not more than 2 km a right at the next sign.
Now at this corner stood a herd of cattle that were crossed with an indigenous breed called Inguni. I see the owner has chosen not to burn the horns. There was a study done which found animals with horns could handle more heat than those with out. As the horn acts as a type of radiator for the blood. That is also why they stopped cutting off Rhino horns to prevent poaching. However due to the number been poached they had to resort to removing them again.
This road had a good surface but after some way it became very sandy and corrugated. At one point there was a steep down hill which I used to my advantage but due to the rough surface it felt like I damaged my front wheel bearings. The down hill in the distance is what damaged the bearings.
Passed some dams up in the mountains. Here is one of them.
Rattled my way to the end of this road and decided could go no more until I had taken a closer look.
Could not see or feel what was making the strange feeling so had to carry on home as there was another 50 km to go.
Pity the impala ran away from in front of this dam before I got my camera out.
This just looks like a dirt road but was trying to show the straight road. The road on the horizon can be clearly seen with the eye but not by my camera. From this point it is about 20 km home. This road also gave me a puncture forcing me to stop and pump wheel up once. Tried to make it home with out pumping again but could not ride any more when I got 200 m from my gate.
Did 125km for the day. The sand roads and hills had pushed my heart rate quite high for most of the day. By the time I got home it felt like I had just run the Comrades marathon. I had also tried to use Energade for the second time. It gave me the same problem as the first time. It gives me a head ache when I first drink it, then once it gets to the muscle it burns. I then have to drink extra water to try to get the extra energy out of the muscle to stop the burn. Looks like I will have to stick to Game. What is nice about Game it is a powder. So can pack extra with me on the long cross border trips. I use one packet per 100 km. I also mix it weaker than recommended taking into account the day temperature. The hotter it is the more I dilute it.
Well as always when pushing yourself to the limits. You make a decision to never do it again. Now a day later I am planning my next route into the hills.
The Munga race
There was a new mountain bike race launched this week. 1000 km from Bloemfontein to Stellenbosch, all in one stage. You must take a look at http:// themunga.com. I would like to take on this challenge so if there is anybody out there that can help with $10000 entry fee for a team of two. I would also be needing a partner. There is enough time to get some training in as it starts on 3 December 2014.
If you looking to do something to set yourself apart from the thousands of cyclists, this is the race. I think it will be making more of a splash than the Cape epic is doing at the moment. It promises to have a lot of international entrance as it has some good prize money.
Is there anybody willing to sponsor and /or team up with me to take on this challenge?
Sondela cycle race weekend
This weekend I rode the Sondela Bela Bela challenge which is a road race. Did 102 km in 4 hour 10 min on my mountain bike. This is my personal best for a tar road surface. This was my second race that I have ever done. To busy riding to take photos on the road. Here is a after photo.
Then did the Sondela Bela Bella mountain bike experience of 40 km. This was my first mountain bike race. The course was flat snaking around in the African bush of the Nature reserve. Passing many wild animals on the way but was to busy negotiating the turns and sandy sections that I did not see any. This is a very well known reserve where you are allowed to do walking trails and cycling on your own. So I would recommend to come back and do the cycle routes at a much slower pace. They only have lions in a rehabilitation center.Well here is a photo of people gearing up and getting bikes ready outside the venue.
Note the save the rhino shirt. Here is a photo of the start.
Again was to busy negotiating the trail to take photos but here are some after photos. Must say the mountain bike riders are more friendly and laid back than the road riders.
Finished the race in 2 hours and 10 minute time.This is unofficial at this time but is close enough for me. Here are the two medals to prove it.
Is there anybody that has done this race and what do you think of it?
Nylsvley
I see the correct spelling is Nylsvey. Looking back at my last post, I see that there was not much of an explanation on what Nylsvley is. It is a 40 km square nature reserve that is considered to be one of the worlds birding hot spots. There are also some antelope species, zebra and giraffe not to mention all the small little creatures. I have been told to be careful, as there might be crocodile that washed down stream from a crocodile farm. I do not know how true that is. Lucky for me it is in my bicycle training area. It is only 40 km from my house. One vet that visits my farm says he normally sees 160 plus bird species for a day. Well I am not such a birder as he is. You can find out more about Nylsvley at http://www.nylsvley.co.za.
Thought to add a few photos of back at work on the farm after weekend.
Bonsmara cows and calves on the farm
Good old faithful tractor that keeps farm going.
Long day safaris 