Between Heaven and Limbo
Having spent some time in the hell that was the Gamkaskloof Valley, followed by an escape via Die Leer (think of it as a kind of Jacob's Ladder to heaven), and after that mountain biking heaven through the Little Karoo and Anysberg areas, it’s qualified to describe Touwsrivier as limbo – one rung above purgatory in the theological sense of things.
The ride from Anysberg starts off well enough, working your way into the valley of the Touws River, when there is a stream, which is not very often at all, and following it all the way to the town named for it. This is meditation country: your eyes see one thing but you have an out of body experience. And from Wittenekke it’s pretty much all downhill, at the far West end of the park.
When you’re on a bicycle the gemsbok and grysbokkies do not take off in alarm as they would if you were in a car, and the ostriches eye you with added, maybe even lurid interest. The path to limbo goes in stages: first the wonderful downhill turns to a long, sustained uphill; then the rough wilderness track becomes a farm road, then a divisional road, straight and boring as a pancake skillet. It just goes on and on and on... It’s never horrible, it’s just that the second half of it is not very nice. Not the fires of hell, nor even the coals of purgatory. Just limbo.
Much like the town of Touwsrivier that was once a bustling railway junction, until the side line ceased to operate and then the trains of the mainline Trans Karoo whizzed by without stopping and the town slowly withered. Not dead, just in a kind of zombie-like limbo.
The only places that seem to have any life are the fuel station on the N1 and the Loganda Karoo Lodge, where the pub throbs till the early hours. It’s not only a decent and actually pleasant place to stay – it’s the only place to stay, and they welcomed you in with grace and kindness.
Wilderness Mountain Biking Experience
On a much smaller scale, what has often been said of Namibia can be said of the Anysberg Nature Reserve - you cry twice: once when you enter, and then again when you have to leave. The Anysberg Nature Reserve is unexpectedly huge, and there are no internal fences, so riding along the rough track is a real wilderness mountain biking experience.
The intense landscape, the secluded farms, lonely tracks, are a revelation. On the road to Anysberg Nature Reserve, you’ll have a vision, and its name was freedom.
By David Bristow
Anysberg Nature Reserve in the Western Cape is a little-known gem southwest of Laingsburg. The park was founded in order to protect the two ...