Day 3 - "My body is revolting"

93km 1500m of climbing. Just over 10 hours. My body and mind are out of sync. Want to ride harder but the body won't hear of it. Expected this to happen around this time but it still isn't fun. After leaving early on Day 2 and making a complete hash of it we decided to head out of the overnight stop with the 'Ride to Rhodes' bunch and get through the first tricky portage through a vlei and over a ridge line. A distance of 12km expected to take about 2 hours. To cut a long story short we missed the bunch start and trailed behind. a position we defended all day. We expected it to be bitterly cold as it was already hovering just above zero when we arrived at 17h45 the evening before. Our room temperature overnight was 2 degrees. The vlei was spectacular. A recent burning left it black with the frost making it look like it had a light covering of sugar frosting. We crunched over frozen puddles and picked our way around partly frozen streams. The portage out of Ntsikeni is incredibly challenging but we got through. We, being Kevin Davie and I, who have travelled together from the start. He is the most delightful company.
I have had a few sms's today to let me know I made a brief appearnace on tv this afternoon on a short update on the race. It showed me brewing a cup of tea on my skottel sitting on the side of the road on Day 1.
Today we passed a soccer field with a bunch of guys playing with a football. I stopped and showed them how to execute a back flick which was followed by either jeers or cheers, couldn't distinguish which. Later on in a different village we came across a bunch of kids engaged in a game of cricket. I asked if I could join in and was handed the bat. I missed the first ball and was caught off the second. All good fun.