Kevin Davie embarked on his quest to find a suitable cycling route using the back roads from Johannesburg to the Cape.
If there’s an intriguing road in South Africa it has to be the one through the Kgalagadi and Karoo that runs for almost 1 000km alongside the Sishen-Saldanha railway line. It cuts a swath across the country, a thin line dissecting the two wilderness areas. Because it carries no passengers it has no need of stations or towns as it rolls towards the sea.
The road is closed to traffic save for the Transnet workers who maintain the line, ensuring that it is able to do its job of annually moving 60-million tonnes of iron ore from the interior to the coast.
Graphic Design: John McCann
I wanted to ride it, as part of what had become a personal quest to find a suitable route using quiet (and safe) back roads from Johannesburg to the Cape. I wanted to leave home in Richmond on my bike, fully self-sufficient to be able to do stretches of up to 100km without water, to ride long hours and to camp alongside the road when fatigue set in.
Read the story by Kevin Davie in the Mail & Guardian
PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Davie
Watch out for the print edition of Cape Town Green Map due out in October 2016, which will focus on cycling in Cape Town and surrounds.
