My tour has turned into a race. I have eight days to cover over 1,000 km to get to Calgary in time for the Stampede. There's no way I am going to miss the Stampede, as I was meeting the family there, so I had no choice but to put my head down and keep on pedalling. I had a look at the map, and decided to head back south to Highway 3 and east towards Calgary. I had no desire to pass through Osoyoos again, so I took the 33 route back to the highway.
Some photo's of the day (more):
The day started with two climbs, with a total ascent of 900 m. This farm is on top of the first climb. Kelowna lies just beyond that ridge at the bottom of the valley.
I reached the second climb (1265 m) in very hot conditions. The temperatures in Kelowna were predicted to reach 37 degrees. I hoped that the temperatures will be much cooler higher up in the mountains, but around 11:00 it must have been close to 30 already.
Since the warmest part of the day in South Africa was between 11:00-14:00, I took a break for lunch at 12:00 and waited until 14:00 before setting off again. Big mistake. This area is like an oven. It accumulated heat throughout the day, and things doesn't cool off before 17:00. It must have been close to 32-34 degrees. I checked the hourly forecasts later on and the warmest part of the day is between 15:00 and 17:00. It was very tempting to jump in the river, but with the saddle problems, I didn't want to ride with wet shorts.
When I got to Beaverdell, the town did not seem to offer much in terms of camping. The one campground appeared to be on the same grounds as the pub. A friendly trucker (yeah I know) warned me about drug problems and I saw several shady-looking characters, so I decided to camp next to the river a bit further down the road. Luckily there was a sweet camp site down the road. I also had a dip in the chilly river. Very refreshing after that heat.
Gist: A good but hard day. The climbs were tough and the heat definitely affected my performance, but the new gears definitely made things much easier. The scenery was nice, but did not really blow you away. I might be spoiled though. I ended up drinking five litres of liquids during my ride and two more afterwards. Tomorrow is going to be a toughy. More heat and a much longer to ride.
0 comments:
Post a Comment