Doringbaai

October 27, 2025

We were pretty knackered last night and consequently were unaware of most of Lutzville apart from our rather disappointing digs and the crappy take away food. This morning it showed itself as a neat and organized little town surrounded by vineyards.

"We spend a lot of time growing grapes in this country" was Leigh's comment as we cycled out of Lutzville.

We had hoped for a short and easy ride today. Short it was but the fresh wind blowing straight off the Atlantic Ocean made sure it wasn't easy.

Our first views of the sea since leaving our home town two and a half weeks ago ( but that was of the Indian Ocean).

Once we reached the coast the wind, now no longer from dead ahead, moderated somewhat and the last ten kilometers were a bit easier. The first village that we reached on the coast was Strandfontein but we had a booking at Doringbaai eight kilometers further on. In between the two we encountered the vineyards of Fryers Cove, the vineyards closest to the Atlantic Ocean in South Africa.

Soon thereafter we were got a sighting of the Shishen to Saldanha ore train. It can be up to 4 kilometers long and the Sishen-Saldanha railway line itself is 861 kilometers long. It is the longest production train in the world made up of up to 375 wagons with multiple locomotives interspersed between the wagons hauling a payload of over 23,000 tonnes.

We checked into our very good cottage in Doornbaai, had a shower and some lunch and headed down to the Fryers Cove winery. It is probably the only winery in the world built on a pier over the ocean, occupying what used to be a fish processing factory.

A fish tank shares the winery with steel fermentation tanks, ceramic fermentation eggs and French oak barrels.

We enjoyed a good tasting of some of their wines with a lovely view over the old harbour.

Birds enhanced the view over the ocean. Here's a Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis) hovering above a rock pool in front of the winery.

Next to the winery is an installation where perlemoen (Haliotis midae), also known as abalone, is farmed as part of a community project replacing the previous small boat fishing industry that used to operate from here.

Tomorrow we have another short and flat ride to Lamberts Bay, about forty kilometers down the coast, where we will have a couple of rest days. The challenges will be stronger winds than today and a terrible sand road. After that the type 2 fun should end for a while.

Today's ride: 36 km (22 miles)
Total: 852 km (529 miles)

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