The good thing was that we woke early to bright skies and none of the forecast storms. The bad thing was that, the forecast strong south-south-westerly wind that I had been dreading, was here and was blowing with a vengeance. This obviously would have been alright had we have been heading north-east, but alas we would be heading in a south-south-westerly direction all day.
For the first 15km the wind was manageable, but as soon as we turned off towards Cape Agulhas it almost halted us completely. During the short descents that we encountered, the wind stopped any attempt to free wheel and on the climbs it was just painful. Having a lorry coming towards on the opposite carriageway, was enough to practically blow us backwards.
With a very distressed Debs in tow and no shelter from the continual wind we limped our way, eventually, to the town of Bredasdorp. Poor Debs is now nursing injured knees, a very sore knotted back and a painful hip. A case of damage limitation led us to make a phone call to George, who yesterday, having known today's forecast, had offered to come and pick us up if we were in difficulty. The wind had sadly beaten us, we could have made it the last 30km to the backpackers, but at what cost to Debs? Being so close to our ultimate goal it would be terrible to have to call it a day now.
Things certainly looked up when we arrived at the very nice backpackers. Having checked out all the options, we have opted for a dorm room. A couple of nights in a proper bed will hopefully work wonders.
Once settled, we wandered across the road to the camp-site, where George and Alice are staying in their caravan. Despite it still blowing a gale and the occasional rain shower, we were treated to a lovely evening of wine, Thai food and of course, good conversation.
It has been lovely to see them both and we should catch up with them again when we get to Cape Town. A difficult day ended considerably better than it started and for that we are very grateful!
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