We departed from Broadlands Country Guest House in Kirkwood to ride a section of gravel road that I recall hiking along as a child when I was at Muir College in Uitenhage. This was part of a Cadet training exercise where we camped in the forest on Mr Farmers farm for the night before returning back to boarding school the next day.

In 2014 I attempted this route on my own and while riding up the pass from the Rocklands side, a heavy thunderstorm turned the good gravel road into a slippery clay mud pool. After a 4th slip and fall, I decided to return to Rocklands to proceed along the tar road. The road kept me humble by helping achieve a 5th slip & fall on my way back.

In dry weather, the gravel road from Rocklands is easy going to the top of the mountain. The descent to Patensie is steep but not difficult. There were a number of crazy cyclist riding up the mountain pass. As we came to a stop where the gravel road joins the Patensie tar road (R331), Sean’s Suzuki motorbike cut out. I took out my jumper leads to jump start his bike. As he attempted to start the bike, the jumper lead heated up and the clamp started melting. I burnt my hand while removing the hot melting jumper leads to avoid the bikes possibly catching fire.

His bike battery was dead with a short. I towed him to Padlangs Country Restaurant where we had lunch and contemplated if we would find a battery on a Sunday. The owners of Padlangs were kind enough to let us lock his bike in their backyard while we searched for a battery. The local garage confirmed that we would need to find one in Port Elizabeth on Monday. We secured Sean’s rear pannier to my bike and he rode as passenger to Swallows Nest at Storms River Village. On Monday, Sean took my motorbike and rode to Knysna to purchase a new battery while I accompanied my sister and children to Birds of Eden near Natures Valley. We returned to Swallows Nest and when Sean returned, we rode to Patensie to fit the battery and ride back in time for dinner in the Village.