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South Africa Race-Cation - Day 2


We woke up to the new sights and smells of South Africa. Our Airbnb was in the perfect location in Gordon’s Bay – just a few blocks (~10 min walk) to the beach and three blocks from the grocery store (SPAR). We could see the ocean from the owners balcony (which we could use). The owners of the Airbnb live on the top floor and we had the entire bottom floor (three bedrooms and three bathrooms + kitchen, family room, outside patio and a place to park our rental car (I used Hertz – Rav4 SUV) inside their gated house.

The owners of the house (Hester and Thys) were extremely welcoming and provided us with lots of recommendations and advice before our arrival. After catching up on a few emails, we walked a few blocks to the Spar grocery store. picked up a few items at Woolsworth as well (kinda like a Fresh Market for those in the states). It was a bit easier to shop for food compared to Europe as everything was in English so we had fun collecting familiar and different foods to add to our grocery cart. I was really impressed with the vegetarian options in both stores (specifically the Woolsworth). I did a lot of research before arriving and I thought the meals were going to be really meat-heavy but there were a lot of plant based options to choose from. This was also our first wow moment of how affordable/cheap the food was here. The US dollar goes a very long way. I think we spent less than $40 on groceries. We walked back to our Airbnb (while snacking) and got our first glimpse of the poverty in the area. There were a lot of homeless people and trash mixed in with the nice, expensive houses. I never felt scared or threatened, everyone was very nice and waved to us with a smile. It was just a culture shock to see the different types of people all in one area. 







After eating a delicious breakfast, Karel built the bikes while I unpacked. Load shedding was during this time (12-2pm) which worked out well to be without power. We can still use our hotspot during loadshedding but the internet was very slow. Nearing 2pm, we drove ~45 minutes to Stellenbosch and passed through several winery’s. The scenery was incredible – a mix of mountains and vineyards. While Karel was doing the driving, I was taking it all in. Karel’s brain was still having a hard time figuring out how to drive on the left side of the road (while sitting on the right side of the car, trying to use the mirror facing to his left and the blinker on his right). We made a good team as Karel did the driving and I would remind him which lane to stay in and where to turn.


Once we arrived to the Banhoek Conservancy, we weren’t sure exactly where to park but we finally found the gate. We paid the 50 Rand (~$2.50 USD) for us each get a pass/wrist bands to ride on the trails. Most of the trails in the area are built by Conrad Stoltz and Leizel (his wife) suggested that we visit this area for our shakeout ride. We were in awe of the beauty of the jagged rocks and wide open fields. We went for a shake out ride with no plans for how long we were going to ride (or where). While we were still functioning ok without major jet lag, the warm temps and fatigue from travel was had us feeling blah. 

We ventured on to one trail which had us climbing right away. It was really hot (low 90s) and dry and we were having a hard time catching our breathe. Especially after travel, neither of us felt very good. We accidentally ended up on a double orange diamond route (which is the “professional/expert” route – the hardest) so I found myself scooting me and my bike back down the trail.






Thankfully, we found another loop with berms and it was so much fun. It was the perfect way to shake out the legs and to get reacquainted with our mountain bikes. We did the loop ~5 times, with each time getting more familiar and confident with my body position. We decided to try another route which had some gentle climbing for a while and then when we decided to turn around, we fully enjoyed the flow of the trail to take us back to the field where we started. This was our first taste of the trails and they were much more dry than what we are used to, which made it a little challenging to feel a grip on the tires as it’s loose and sandy. After the ride I went for a short run (~1.5 miles) to get my system going. Karel did a short jog in the morning so he stayed by the bikes at the car. We made our way back to the Airbnb (with our navigation taking us through the Stellenbosch University, which was very pretty).

We saw several packed cars of African American people packed into the trunks as well as many people standing on the side of the road waving money to get a ride.

We made it home around 7pm which gave us enough time to prepare dinner before load shedding at 8-10pm. The downstairs unit stayed pretty cool so we didn’t notice not having AC. We did have a fan in our room which we turned on for when the power would switch back on at 10pm (or whenever loadshedding was overwith). It would then turn off again around 2-4am for another loadshedding). I went to bed a little later (~10:30pm) but I was surprised I wasn’t more tired from the jetlag. We had a great night of sleep.