I woke up rather early and had a nice shower and a cup of tea and a risk. Cecille and her daughter came over and chatted and I squared up with her and headed out .Gerrard had arranged for his son to change my oil, so I went over to his house and got it done and only left there at 2pm to go get a new tyre and tube plus a new chain and sprockets. At 4pm I departed feeling good that I got everything serviced and a new rear tyre.
I stopped for some petrol 55 km outside Joburg and as I reached the highway again I felt a wobble, back wheel was flat ! Made a quick u turn and dashed back to the petrol station, and parked in the handicap parking and dilly dallied on what i should do for an hour like an idiot. Not many choices but the inevitable, which i did not want to face. So I began the brutal task of changing a brand new Heidenau tyre with only 55 km on at the entry to the Engen store with hundreds of people walking by, some offering idotic help, some just curious and encouraging. It actually went quite well I thought, the tube had a huge hole in and the valve was totally separated from the tube and nothing had penetrated the tyre.
At 10:30pm I was back on my bike ready to leave and noticed the tyre was flat again, you almost want to cry, but you laugh. So take all my gear off again and go through the procedure again, the brand new spare tube I had, had a small hole in it, so put in another tube I had ,luckily enough. At 12:30 am I was done and left the Engen station, slightly deflated but chuffed that I had fixed it and on my way to Kroonstad, two hours away. Driving at night is never good and especially in Africa over the Xmas holidays is not smart. I happened to miss the Kroonstad turn off and so continued on to Bloemfontein. At 4:30 am the sky started to light up and at five the sun popped up and i stopped at the Wimpy for coffee feeling somewhat tired. They had the seating area closed off but i sat there anyway, they didn't understand my stupidness and that i had been awake for 26 hours. I was going to stay over and sleep awhile but decided to push on through Colesburg and Graaf Reinet to Willomore. I stopped in some small drop for a drink and some chips and I stood leaning on my bike and fell asleep standing up, then some Jack ass hooted and startled me awake I didn't know where the hell I was till I came around. Was the weirdest thing and don't know how long I nodded off but was almost in a coma.
Got to Wiilamore and decided to push on to a nice camp site,Uitspan , in the Baviaans which was another 44 km away.The campsite was beautiful with my own lapa and nice green grass and the ablutions were first class and after a shower I felt almost human again but was really tired. I braaied some boerewors and roosterbrood and two cold beers and I was done. The sun was still up and I didn't even pitch my tent, slept in the lapa for like eleven hours. After being awake for 39 hours and then a good night's sleep I really felt good when I woke up.
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