Touws River

November 12, 2025

We climbed a bit higher after breaking camp this morning, up to 1216 meters above sea level, before the tar came to an end and we dropped almost 400 meters on a good gravel road to Matjiesrivier.

On the way down the descent we disturbed a group of three of Klipspringers. The male hung around for long enough for me to get a couple of shots.

This old bell was on the roadside at Matjiesrivier. An old slave bell from the seventeenth century perhaps?

It was already getting hot soon after the descent and would eventually hit thirty four degrees.

Once off the dirt we had a gentle climb followed by a gentler descent to the N1. It was hot and we made sure to drink regularly.

We encountered two roadside picnic spots today. Very welcome in the heat.

Apart from the heat, today's ride wasn't physically challenging and despite leaving at about seven we reached our digs by eleven but I had phoned ahead and warned our hostess we would be arriving early. Once settled in, I carried on to Touws River itself to buy some groceries.

The town isn't as dire as I was expecting but it is a town with no obvious future. It was once a critical railway depot because trains had to be double banked to manage the climb up from De Doorns to the south west but it has been in decline since the late nineteen eighties.

We had hoped to spend tomorrow night at the historic Lord Milner Hotel in Matjiesfontein but it is fully booked. There are a large number of wind and solar electricity farms being erected in the area and much of the accomodation has been taken up by contractors working on the green energy projects.

So now we have a longer-than-we-wanted ride to Laingsburg where accomodation was also difficult to secure. We managed to get a room there for the next two nights (a rest day is called for) at which point we will need to decide between carrying on further along the N1 or heading southwards to the Little Karoo.

Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 1,216 km (755 miles)

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