Saturday we got up at 5AM to head over to Ficksburg, South Africa (about an hour from Maseru) for the annual Cherry Festival Mountain Bike Race. We went with friends and colleagues Justin and Amanda Honaker and Bryan Eygabroad (MAF Missionaries). I've been biking back and forth to work and doing some weekend rides for fitness and in an attempt to train. Justin and Bryan convinced me it was time to join them in the race.
We'd had three straight days of rains which made the race one of mud, mud, and more slippery mud mixed with an assortment of things from the fields and farms. I was hoping I didn't slip, slide, and fall off as one part of the race trail but us through the middle of a farm complete with various cow related obstacles.
I did the 20km race (my first MTB race) and the other two guys did the 40km. All in all there were close to 200 racers. Sally and Amanda saw us off on the race and then went into town to enjoy some cherry related delights and some coffee to warm up. The three of us completed our races. I think I actually gained weight on it from the rain and the amount of mud caked on my bike.
It was a great group of people to ride with and the scenery was beautiful. After the race and some photos, we ended up taking our bikes and our selves right into the lake (dam reservoir) to attempt to get the majority of the mud and other debris off ourselves and bikes. We followed that with hot off the grill boerwors and cokes and then headed back towards Lesotho. We stopped at Constatias to get some fresh cherries, some cherry jam, and a sheet of home made peach fruit roll up. It was just plain fun.
After cleaning up and a short rest, Sally and I went back across the border with Mike and Sharol Shutts (MAF Missionaries) to the Ladybrand Dutch Reformed Church for the annual Christmas Festival of Carols program.
It may seem a bit early for this, but we've been told that in Southern Africa the whole area shuts down for about a month surrounding Christmas/New Years holidays.
The program was a combination of Christmas music performed by the Free State Symphony along with three choirs. The music was great, with the audience joining in for
three of the songs. We especially enjoyed the last two songs - Silent Night and Oh Come All Ye Faithful - as we sang parts of the songs in English, Afrikaans, and Sesotho. It was a fine way to end the day.
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