We arose early to ride Day 5 of the Joberg2c dry run. Starting out from Winterton we headed out on the tar road for about 4km. In the actual event this is a ‘no race’ zone and everyone is led out behind a farm tractor, as is customary on the Joberg2c. Gary led us through the private farms, past the flowering cosmos encroaching on all sides of the farm roads.

We approached some Zulu tribal land and enjoyed a fantastic run of natural singletrack through the grasslands before pointing our bikes towards Escourt. After a length of easy district road we found ourselves screaming down the pass behind Wagendrift Dam and stopping for a quick view of the African falls.

At the bottom of the descent we crossed the Bushmans river and had to deal with our first real hill of the day. A steep toughy for sure, it lead us into the gates of Dalton Private reserve. This reserve is tucked away in the country side and has a host of wild animals in its land. We had to dodge the Zebra that got spooked by our arrival :)

The second hill of the day is in the reserve and is not as steep as the first but a bit longer. At the top we passed the reserves headquarters and accommodation. A beautiful place to stay one day for sure and the good folk there seem to be very jacked up and involved with the upliftment of the local community.

Before long we had reached the exit gate of the reserve but were lucky enough to spot a White Rhino and her baby and some buffalo along the route - what a special ride!
Another big climb sits at the exit of the gate-actually the gate sits halfway up the hill (thank goodness) and we headed over into Greg Symons’ huge dairy farm after a bit of sweating and moaning.

Finally KwaZulu Natal started looking like what I remembered from my youth. Rolling hills, green grasslands and old farm names linked to Britain. It made me feel like I was home again.

We battled with some climbs for the next few hours and (luckily for the riders of Joberg2c 2011) Glenn and Gary decided to cut this bit out and rather take an easy cruise home from the top of Yorkshire Downs farm to Glengarry resort.

What a privilege of a day! We had covered about 102km with 1600m of elevation gain.