fotografic: Day 7 - Xmas Challenge

Day 7 of my Christmas challenge, the penultimate day. I had to put in a good effort if I was going to cut down on my deficit of 245km, and indeed I managed it - 120km and 1540m of climbing. This time I avoided the whole traffic issue and drove out to Boane at 5:15am, and set out from there at 6:09 - with little or no traffic once we'd passed the Quarries. Accompanying me on todays ride was Gustavo. We kept a very easy pace for the first 40km, until reaching Mandevo where the road starts climbing for 16km up to Namaacha. There I put the thumbscrews on and powered up the hill, although my legs were definately feeling tired from yesterday's mamoth effort. At Germantine, two thirds into the climb I sprinted up the short rise and powered down the descent, leaving my climbing buddy a bit bewildered and dropped. I was testing my climbing against the climb record of 40 minutes set by Betinho Cuambe, our local Time trial specialist. I managed a reasonable 45 minutes, which considering yesterday distance and the 40km "warm-up" wasn't too bad. Still, need to work a bit more on my climbing. At the top we had a quick break and coke and then set off on the Namaacha loop, which was about as much climbing as the bit from Mandevo. Gustavo was not enjoying this, but put on a brave face. Then I tried to climb up to Mt. Ponduine, the highest point in the Maputo Province, but the guards of the Telephone Operator who own the site had strict instructions not to let anyone pass. A pity because it's a 2km climb with some very steep sections, 16%. Next time we'll get proper authorisation.
We stopped again at the Namaacha petrol station once we'd done the loop, then set off on our long descent back to Boane. The temperature was rising and hit 40 degrees celsius but even so we managed to lift our average speed and were doing 35-40km/hr on the flat section after the Mandevo descent. A final twist was the extra distance of the Pequenhos Libombos loop - we were literally on our last legs and were quite happy to reach the Boane Galp petrol station for an after cycle coke and sandwich. So... have 125km to go. We'll see how my legs hold up tomorrow but the idea is to do the Goba climb or out to Moamba - either way we'll be setting out a lot earlier to avoid the heat.