Easy night riding.

Out of Moordenaarspoort we had a gentle breeze that while neither hindering nor helping our headway had a pleasant cooling effect that allowed us to make good speed over the ground. It did occur to us that with Tim holed up in bed we were in second position on the race behind Alex as the only people who has pressed on beyond Moordenaarspoort on the first day. We weren't fooling ourselves that we were stronger than the mighty Tim James and counted ourselves lucky to to feeling strong on our bikes.
Casper still had problems with his tyre deflating. When it got too soggy I would ride on slowly while he stopped to pump the tyre. Every time he caught up he would accuse me of sprinting off and making it harder for him to catch me. I actually slowed to make it easier for him. It highlighted the benefit of continuously moving forward which it what characterises the way I ride. I told Casper he would have time at the next support station to sort the tyre out while I made tea and heated dinner. In the mean time he must just pump it hard.
45 minutes into this section we met with a car coming in the opposite direction. The road being narrow we pulled over to let the bakkie pass. It stopped next to us. Quite satisfied that it was just a pair of cyclists Casper and the farmer got chatting. I understood just about nothing of the conversation and Casper unwound it for me as we rode on. Apparently at a farm behind us someone had mistaken our lights for a suspicious slow moving vehicle and the news had been relayed via the farm radio network. They knew about the race and where we were headed. The week before they had lost 70 sheep to stock theft so were extra vigilant.
He said the farmer also said we were mad. No offence taken at that but the slow moving part did rankle somewhat.
Passing the old store and turning into the jeep tracks through the farms I stopped to phone home and check in with Meryl while Casper pumped his tyre. Meryl asked how strong we felt in a scale of 1 to 10. The easy answer was 10, we felt great. It was at that moment I saw the first distant flash of lightning on the horizon in the direction we were headed.
In spite of all the stops to pump tyres, chat to the farmer and phone home it took us just short of 2 hours to cover the 40 km's to Kranskop from Moordenaarspoort. We were on a roll!