Day 24-25: Kakamas to Upington.

Once again I thank my kind hosts for the great stay. Riana was kinda enough to load me up with a bag of rusks and a couple bags of raisins. Good road food and I looked forward to those rusks with my morning coffee.  Instead of Keimos, I was now headed off straight to Upington as that was where my pal Warren was now stationed for the next few days. The road took me past and through the familiar orchards I had grown used to over the last few days before opening up a bit. I rode through Keimos, then Loxtonvale before arriving in Upington.

Once there I took it slow as it was a major town so I had to be careful as I was back into regular traffic. I stopped at an adventure shop and got me another can of gas before heading off to where Warren was staying. He was out on contract in this area for a few days and said it was cool that I could just stay where he was staying. Sweet, I thought. It was a great coincidence that I was meeting one of my oldest friends on the road during my trip. I arrived at the place which was an awesome lodge chalet place situated right on the Orange River! I checked in as Warren was still out at work then headed off for a swim. It wasn’t quite as warm as when I was in Namibia so it took me a while to get in the water. I did a little swim to the bank on the other side before heading back. It was pretty chilly. Autumn was now setting in.

Was good to see Warren when he showed up just after 5. He told me he was out collecting soil samples just outside Keimos for some future project. His job was to collect the soil from precalculated coordinates and send these back to the lab to be analysed for all sorts of things. All in order to show if the soil is suitable enough for whatever project was going to be taking place. The results would show if the soil had the correct density suitable for structural placement etc. We then headed out for a fat chow at the local Dros before calling it a night.

Distance 85kms

Day 25: Upington

I had decided to spend an extra day in Upington so that I could get a new camera and also a quick bike check up just in case. It was also a public holiday. I took my time doing all this before heading back to the room. Once Warren was back I helped him tag the soil sample bags, then we did a little ride around out Upington up the N14 to see what the road would look like for me tomorrow. Pretty much like the last 300kms plus since I had left Springbok. Then we headed back for a drink before having another lekker chow at Dros.

Orange River awesomeness in Upington.

Pretty decent place this.

Distance 8kms