Rocks, Mud and Evening Wear.

An opportunity to get out of Joburg for the weekend?    Yes please. 

An opportunity to ride the trails at Misty Valley Lodge?   Absolutely! 

You're going to have to wear a dress for the Do on Saturday night?   Whatever!   I'm going to ride at Misty Valley. Woo hoo.

We arrived Friday in the late afternoon and wow, what a beautiful place. It's got lovely gardens around the lodge and conference centre and then it's just wide open space. There's game roaming around (yes even Red Hartebees, so we'll have to keep a lookout) and three calves had been born during the week.

Sitting on the verandah of the Knight & Boar pub we get chatting to Flying Flanders. What an unexpected treat this was. Garth participated in this year's Freedom Challenge and rode the 2400km in 19 days. I'd been leisurely following the race from the comfort of my desk and was completely fascinated by it. Now here was one of the riders. Wow.  It was great to hear firsthand about the race and to ask the gazillions of questions I had about how it actually worked. It was fascinating. This was just one of the many highlights of the weekend.

The next highlight was the trail we rode on Saturday morning inside the grounds at Misty Valley.  Jessie, Garth's rescue dog, was our companion and guide as she ran ahead of us as if to direct us. At times she'd be bouncing in the long grass alongside us or swimming in every dam, stream that we came across. Such a sweetie.  She didn't once try to bite any tyres and ran ahead or alongside.  By the end of the day she was exhausted, but you could see she'd had a ball.

Its quite something to be riding along these open plains when suddenly springbok and wildebeest dash across your path. Not an experience you get very often.  We stopped and watched them for a while and took quite a few photo's.  Apparently there are also red hartebeest here, but clearly these ones aren't looking to go viral and become famous.

I'd always thought the Lowveld was called that because it was lower in altitude than the Highveld. How silly of me. Misty Valley, in Machadodorp, is almost 1,500m higher than Joburg and for the first time I got to experience riding at a higher altitude. Yoh! At the top of the first climb (which I'd been feeling very proud of myself having ridden all the way up) I thought my lungs were going to burst, it seemed I couldn't take enough air in. It was about 36degrees out there and though I was really thirsty my need for air was more urgent and it took quite a while before I was able to breathe normally and drink. There were 2 more little climbs and I struggled up them, but it was not in vain :)

From there you can see the treeline and we headed straight for it into the most gorgeous forest single track. Well worth getting breathless for. It's not very long, but there are sections of forest and it has a few switchbacks thrown in for good measure. 

Misty Valley also has some stunning rocks. Now that may sound odd to you but tough,they really are quite a feature. The trail takes you round, in between and up and over some great boulders. We had to have several photo stops along the way just because the route, the game, the trees, the rocks were so scenic.  What a lovely trail!

Celebration of Cycling

Nothing for nothing. Now it was time to get cleaned up and transform myself from a dusty sweaty mountain biker into an elegant awards banquet guest. It took some doing and a bit of time, but soon enough the transformation was complete! The awards were taking place in White River so we got going and found the venue easily enough. It was cooking hot and so we sat in the lounge with several mildly alcoholic long drink refreshments. Slowly the other guests started to arrive and we were quite surprised at the number of people we knew. One thing I must say is that I didn't recognise some of them at first with out their lycra, helmet hair and dirty faces. Goodness Mountainbikers clean up good.  There might just be something to ZZ Top's song "every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man" after all but I venture to say that it applied to ladies too. Everyone really made a huge effort and looked styling.

The purpose of the night was to recognise and reward the achievements of the Mpumalanga cyclists as despite there being a cycling association for the province they weren't doing this. So one of the parents got a team together and with sponsorship from Valencia and Misty Valley made it a wonderful night for the cyclists. Phil Liggit was the VIP guest and spoke briefly about his 39 years covering the Tour de France. What a fascinating life he has had because of cycling and the Tour.  It was only at the dinner that I got to meet our hosts Phillip and Annah for the first time. Such warm, hospitable and genuine people who made us feel like part of the Misty Valley family.  Simone and Savannah, their daughters received awards for their achievements in mountain biking.

Day 2

Soooo much of tired. A night so late it was almost early but after some breakfast little Jessie looked at us encouragingly as if to say "a ride will make you feel better. Come, let me take you again".  We didn't need much encouraging and jeans were traded for lycra in a flash. Ooo but getting going was a not so easy for me. Thick solid legs that couldn't turn over. Fortunately the beginning of the ride is flat and shortly thereafter we saw the Wildebeest and springbok again and the thick legs, tired eyes were completely forgotten.

Today the hartebees and zebra came out and we rode near them several times as the route twisted and turn through the farm. It's so incredible to be able to ride almost amongst them.  The zebra's didn't seem to mind us being around.

The good thing about doing a route twice is that you know what to expect, so it seems easier and you feel fitter. And today I tried some of the obstacles that I hadn't done the day before. Definitely getting my confidence back and also finding out what my bike can do.

Today we played around a bit more on the boulder obstacles and bridges. Practising them over and over as well as capturing them on video and photo.  Though this particular track is only about 10km it's well worth riding with all sorts of unexpected delights.  There are many other trails, but given the shortage of time we just stuck to this one.  They have access to the neighbouring farms and it's possible to do 40 / 50 / 60km trails. We were just nearing the end of the "rock garden" before the descent to home when a lone cloud decided to empty on us. We peddled quickly through the rain to get over the remaining rocky section before it became too wet and slippery. The little rain cloud was a welcome relief to the 36degree heat we'd been riding in and it followed us all the way back to our chalet where it suddenly stopped. And there was no more rain for the rest of the day.

Its always a sadness to come to the end of a wonderful mini break and there were many thoughts of bunking Monday and just staying on. But if you don't leave you can't come back. And we'd left some trails to do next time.  Also Garth is busy scheming about some new trails and an XC course as well so there'll be tons to do for another visit. And I guess we need to give him a bit of time to do it.