Living on a prayer, direct

With this in mind somehow i decided i have to leave now before the rain starts. Got dressed,took my lunch (dry toast) and just before setting off oom andre said a heartfelt prayer for me.


When u start bonking on a bike you know trouble is on the way. When i started bonking cycling downhill for 500m from the support station with two big portages on the way not a lot went through my mind except maybe survival. Started pushing my bike up,was feeling too weak to pick it up so just dealt with the extra mud and weight accumulating. Backpack must have eaten the dog,thing weighs a ton. Somehow made it to the top,no recollection of the walk up. Left my yummy half digested toast up there. The whole time the prayer kept recycling in my head, i kept adding Lord give me strength. The descend was awesome,steep muddy slippery and brought me out of the haze a bit. Went down,and started making my way to the bonthoek portage.

The bonthoek portage is one of the magical moments of the race, forming the barrier between the mountains behind you and the 'flat' karoo in front of you. Just keep swimming... At the top i sat down,completely depleted,nothing left. Only good thing was that i couldnt really feel my knee anymore. Eventually some sheep came to investigate,had to start smiling and took in some of the views. The descend was muddy,rocky, steep and still iced over, very technical but loads of fun. Somehow at the bottom started feeling a bit better and cruized off to Moordenaarspoort for the night. Once i got there realised i made the 10hr trip in 7. ? Dont know how. Missed a lot of the views but made it,thanx for the prayers oom andre and everyone else.