Cycle Around South Africa 2013: Day 99: Hluleke Nature Reserve to Hole in the Wall

What a view to wake up to!!!

It was an awesome day to wake up to with the wind totally gone. I packed up and said cheers to the Queenstown boys. I was no off to Coffee Bay and with this map I had, nothing was going to stop me. I was now heading inland a little bit being a few kilometers from the coast. Again the place was sceneic as ever and it was wonderful to ride through this area.

This one section winded down into a valley where I met 2 guys I saw yesterday. They were walking the area. I cant recall from where and where to but it seemed like quite a trek. I wished them well and free wheeled down the hill. Another reason why I chose a bike over walking. You can let gravity do the work sometimes. It was then a long slow climb as it always is when in the bottom of the valley but the views were epic once again and I finally reached the top where it was flatter in general. One more valley river and a climb up and it was the last stretch to Coffee Bay.

Windy windy that road is.

Just like with PSJ, there was a nice downhill approaching the coast. At last, I had finally made it after 4 days instead of 2. But once I was there I realized I wasn’t going to stay. I arrived just after one and found the place to be a little dirty in the main part of town where the backpackers were and such. This stuck out to me more cause I had just read someone else’s review of Coffee Bay and she wasn’t too happy with it. And this for some reason stuck in my mind even though I was open to actually checking it out for myself which I was doing right now. So I chose to ride out in the hope of maybe finding a spot outside town to stay at. I tried a isolated area but there was no one home even though I tried calling. They would only get back to me later. So I decided to just ride to Hole in the Wall which was about 10kms away.

The down hill into Coffee Bay.

The uphill leaving Coffee Bay.

Awesome!!!

I tried that little spot there in the middle but no one was there. Still pretty sweet place.

These girls helped me push my bike of the hill a bit. Gotta love that pink and purple.

There was a decent enough road which I took for about 7kms before noticing that I could go closer to the shore edge so I went for it. This brought me to the top of some amazing rock edges but a path for bikes was nonexistent. Before attempting the last stretch I just totally enjoyed where I was for the moment. This amazing view over the ocean was incredible. The sun was now setting and it was time to get going. I had to go down a dip before having to push my bike up a super steep hill. This would have been hella tiring if two boys hadn’t shown up and I asked them to help me out. They did and we got to the top in no time. And I gave them ten rand each as thanks. They also showed me where baby hole in the wall was. Quite a nice little sight. I now had a decent path to ride on which was technically a walking path but it did the trick.

This road was good.

See, gentle inclines.

What the hell was I thinking going off it.

You gotta be a ninja to sneak past these cows.

Boom. Reward. Yeah this is what I was thinking.

Just took my time to enjoy this view.

With stacks of pics.

Clearly not a bike route.

Baby Hole in the Wall

Legends. These guys saved my ass.

Finally I came to the beginning of a very long and steep hill that would take me to Hole in the Wall. I had to zigzag down so as not to fall over throughout the grass but I made it eventually and headed for the Hole in the wall hotel where they also have camping facilities. I was glad to finally be there. I had initially thought of staying in Coffee bay and doing the hole the in the wall hike but since I was here now I didn’t have to. I’d just check it out tomorrow.