Training on the Montagu Pass

It's a long weekend in South Africa and we are visiting family in the Garden Route. The weather prediction for the weekend was not very favourable, but it has not rained yet so I guess we cannot complain. My wife, who has decided to do the next Karoo to Coast Mountain Bike Race was looking for a gravel road to train, preferably one that resembles the road she will be doing on this race. What better place to go than the Montagu Pass?

If you are ever fortunate enough to visit the Garden Route, take some time to drive the Montagu Pass which runs from George across the Outeniqua Mountains right into the Klein Karoo. I am not going into the detail of the phenominal pass that was built in 1844 with the help of some convicts, but do read about this masterpiece. We arrived at the foot of the pass at around 9.30. The idea was to drop my wife there and then to take our time up the pass while she was sweating it out to the top. Obviously I had my camera with me to take some pics and kill time, but with the mist I knew that the chances of getting something decent was very small. Most of the pictures I took I deleted because it looked as if the lense was fogged up, but here are some of the better ones.