Tour d' Afrique - Cycling Cairo to Cape Town

Crossing over the Orange River into South Africa was a wonderful thing.  I proudly put on my South African flag jersey to wear that morning, but then it was so cold I rode the whole day with my jacket on.  The night at Springbok was freezing.  It was one of the riders 40th birthday, and we all stood around with beanies and scarves, and the Canadians and Norwegians could not believe that South Africa could be so cold.  We huddled around the camp fire as there was no shelter apart from our tents.  I was expecting to get really cold, but between my Treklite ll tent and Chamonix 850 sleeping bag I remained quite toasty.  A bit of Old Brown Sherry of course helped.  Just to add insult to injury, the rain came again, but this time it was cold rain.  The first bit of the trip in SA we did along the N7, and then branched off to Vanrynsdorp, Elands Bay and Yzterfontein. It rained on and off from Vanrynsdorp, and remained freezing cold.  The night at Elandsbay it rained so hard the whole kitchen area was flooded around the trucks, and a few riders tents were flooded.  We finally get to see the sea again and its raining so hard we can hardly see it!

  Sunrise in Elands Bay campsite.  Kitchen and surrounds completely flooded.

There has never been a wetter Tour d Afrique!

So there was lots more riding in the rain, and we were just hoping that we would have clear skies coming into Cape Town.  Everyone was getting tired of me saying how beautiful the view of Table Mountain is.

On the morning we left Yzterfontein for the city, it was crisp and clear, and we were so grateful for that.

30km out of Cape Town we stopped for brunch, and all the riders could go onto the beach and have photos taken etc. Lots of happy pics of the end.  The group and Rafiki and I.  My trusty GT Avalanche that saw me through the trip without changing one component.

The last 30km we did in convoy with a police escort.  We really flew in - I have never been in such a fast convoy before, going between 25 and 30km per hour.  It was so great coming into the Waterfront with all the fanfare.  Thanks to all my special friends who were there to meet me - it was awesome!

 Thanks to all my friends who were there and the many more who are not on this photo.  You were the real stars that kept me going all the way! 

Thanks too to all my blog readers who I have never met.  I was overwhelmed at the interest and you in your own way encouraged me in the dark moments.

The challenge now is to fit back into society again and get used to driving and traffic jams and queues and shopping and parking fines.  My bed and my bath are lovely, but I miss all the friends I have made, and wonder how they are settling after what they have been through.  God Bless all those special people.