Day 21 - The Final Push

This day is what we have all been dreading for the last 3 weeks, the notorious Stettyns Kloof. Those who saw the TV episodes that Andrew King did of last years race showed some very broken riders finishing Stettyns.

We started at 4:45 from Trouthaven and had a 20km section to do in sand roads in the dark. we then exited and started hiking around the dam. We then came around into the kloof and could see in the distance where we had to exit over the saddle. I remember thinking that this shouldn't take too long, we will be out before lunch....

Well, it is amazing how wrong one can be. The further we go in the more difficult it got. I tried carrying the bike, but then you hit trees and bush and have to try and push through the bush. The first river crossing I took my shoes and socks off. Before the 2nd one I had fallen in the river so trying to keep dry was history. There were times when you were fighting this terrain meter by meter to make progress. It was really a test of endurance and patience.

Eventually at 16:00 we summited the saddle. There was a long farm road to come out near the bottom of Du Toits Kloof Pass, Which we had to cycle up to the top over the next 11km. What a nasty way to end. From there it was a short downhill to the finish at Dimersfontein Wine Estate

Fiona and I finished at 19:30, which is 21 days 13 hours and 30 minutes to finish the race. We got presented with our Lesotho blankets in the tradition of the race by race director David Waddilove.