December 28, 2020
The Railway Road
Lambert's Bay to Vensterklip
We were keen to ride the service road that runs alongside the Shishen-Saldanha railway line but we also wanted to see the section of the coast south of Lambert's Bay. So we compromised and did both.
The road south of Lambert's Bay is now tarred and was an easy ride into a gentle breeze.
Twelve kilometers south of the town we turned onto the railway road. It was pretty sandy and quite corrugated but with a hard substrate so there was no danger of sinking up to the bottom bracket and we could ride the whole way without resorting to walking the bikes.
Within a kilometer or so we came upon a lovely pan filled with birds - mostly Lesser Flamingos (Phoeniconaias minor) but also a few Greater Flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus) and other waders including Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus), Sanderling (Calidris alba), Little Stint (Calidris minuta), Common Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula) and Chestnut-banded Plover (Charadrius pallidus). The birds were quite far off and there must have been other species that we couldn't pick out with only binoculars . However rough the road might have become was compensated by the birds.
Thr road did rougher as we approached Elands Bay but it was an easy and scenic ride in general with not a lot of traffic.
We road into the village of Elands Bay and had a toasted sandwich and an ice-cream for lunch and then headed inland for five kilometers to Vensterklip which has a well-recommended campsite next to Verlorenvlei ("lost marsh"). We found it rather sparse and very sandy but it was great to be camping again.
Today's ride: 34 km (21 miles)
Total: 1,242 km (771 miles)
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