Day 449 South Africa 26/01/2012, Gansbaai – Hermanus Backpackers, Hermanus. 29.11miles/46.00km, 2hr55minutes, Av 9.9mph.

A good night's sleep saw us up and ready to face the day. Beautiful sunshine greeted us as we left the town and started a longish climb towards Hermanus. Despite a strongish headwind, we reached the top without too much difficulty and started the ride down to Stanford, approximately the halfway point.

Leaving Stanford we turned west and enjoyed what was now a tailwind as we rode through some beautiful scenery. There were a few more hills than we had expected, but largely we made good progress towards Hermanus.

The nature of the route that we were riding meant that we could see across the bay to where we had come from. It was strange seeing our day's starting point look so close, having cycled considerably further.

Arriving in Hermanus we began the long ride through the town in search of the backpackers. Having almost cycled out the other end of the town, we resorted to phoning them for directions. Fortunately we hadn't gone too far past and were soon being shown a lovely room in their nearby cottage. So far the staff at the backpackers have been terrific, by far the most helpful we have seen for a while. The facilities at the cottage are lovely and we made rapid use of the pool to cool us down after the cycling.

Heading into town for some lunch we ended up at the old harbour. The tapas bar had been recommended to us by the hostel staff so we decided to give it a go. The food was very good and the beer was very cold.

Thanks to some friendly customers we ended up staying and as a consequence drinking a lot more beer than we had planned. The walk back to the hostel was a bit of a blur, as has been the rest of the evening. Clearly it is time for bed!

Day 448 South Africa 25/01/2012, Struisbaai – Gansbaai Backpackers. 54.64miles/88.49km, 4hr59minutes, Av10.9mph.

Choosing to sleep in a dorm hasn't turned out to be the best option. For both nights it has been very warm at night, mosquitoes have taken a liking to us and last night our dorm mates managed to make as much noise as possible when they arrived back at midnight.

Slightly down on sleep, we set off early this morning heading for 45km of gravel road. We had been told that the road was in very good condition and thankfully that is what we found. For the first 24km section it was better than some tarmac roads we have been on. It was also very scenic and even better we were pushed along by a strong tailwind. In fact the wind was so good that even a badly corrugated second section of road didn't harm our progress.

Getting to the end of the gravel road early meant that our original plan to stay at Die Dam, 35km shy of Gansbaai seemed a bit foolish. Instead of stopping early, we decided to press on and thanks to the wind and a flat, straight road we soon arrived in the town. Having made a quick stop at the supermarket we went in search of the backpackers, which by a bit of trial and error we found. We have a nice room and it seems, the whole place pretty much to ourselves!

Despite Gansbaai being a small fishing town, it is the South African capital of white shark dives. Ordinarily this would be the only reason to come and stay here, but for us it was at a convenient distance on the map. I have been considering doing a shark dive for the last few weeks, but have been struggling with the fact that it is the wrong season. There are still sharks about, but the water visibility is poor this time of year. Eventually I have made the decision not to bother. I would rather come back at the right time of year, with my underwater camera and my scuba card. For now I will save the money for something else, we still have quite a few days ahead of us.

Discovering that there isn't much to see in the town, we returned to the hostel where we plan to have an early night. We have short days ahead of us from now on, starting with what should be a pretty easy ride to Hermanus.