Nuwerus

October 24, 2025 to October 25, 2025

Friday the 24th of October 2025

We were on the road by six in the hope of missing as much of the forecasted headwinds as possible.

The sun rising above the mountains after more than half an hour on the road.

Last night my son suggested that we would see Heuweltjieveld on our route today. It is a particular vegetation type that occurs in the Succulent Karoo Biome. He said we should look out for circular patches about 20 to 30 meters wide and a couple of meters high where the vegetation (mainly dwarf succulent shrubland) differs from that surrounding it.

Heuweltjie is the Afrikaans word for a hillock or small mound. In this case the mounds are ancient termitaria and so the soil is deeper with a higher silt content and better water retention than the surrounding areas allowing the support of a higher concentration of vegetation. The result is higher biodiversity with different species of plants and arthropods that the surrounding areas.

The paler circles are the patches of Heuweltjieveld.

My apologies for the above but not much happened today.

After about 32 kilometers we crossed from the Northern Cape province into the Western Cape province.

In the end the wind only troubled us over the last twenty kilometers and we rolled in to the Hardeveld Lodge at Nuwerus soon after two thirty. In fact, the never ending rolling hills were a far greater reason than the wind for the ride being rather strenuous. It felt as if we were constantly either climbing or descending.

We are the only people in the tiny camping area behind the lodge but have a site with shelter from the wind and sun. After a cold beer and a hot shower we had supper in the little restaurant at the lodge, too tired to cook for ourselves. A rest day waits for us tomorrow.

Saturday the 25th of October 2025

I slept like a log last night. A short walk around the village took only a few minutes - with a population of only six hundred odd there isn't much to it.

Some of the village houses would look more at home on a remote farm than in an urban area.

The weather has changed significantly over the past two days. The south westerlies have blown in some Antarctic weather and summer has gone AWOL. The temperature dropped from the mid thirties to the mid twenties yesterday and won't make it out of the teens today. It is likely to stay like this until Tuesday.

Tomorrow we head for Lutzville. The first half of the ride is a rough dirt road and we will be heading straight into a strong south westerly wind. Another early start is on the cards.

Today's ride: 80 km (50 miles)
Total: 758 km (471 miles)

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