I had to make the ride today though, otherwise it would probably not happen. So this morning at the break of day I set off for my one final ride to the Cape of Good Hope ( Kaap de Goede Hoop), the most South Western tip of Africa. The end of the continent. After heading south for many months, rounding the Cape would be the start of the journey east, towards the East Indies.
19/05/14, stage 85, Cape Town to the Cape of Good Hope
I don’t expect people to understand, but today I rode my bike. I know I just finished some 10.500 bike ride from Cairo to Cape Town, but I had this one last ride on my mind. And I’m not the only one who intended to do it... Because we havn’t reached the end of the continent yet. While it’s so close!
18/05/13, The Day After
So we’re done... it all still feels a bit surreal. More like a restday than having finished. I’ve spent the day like a restday too. A very lazy restday though, not an active one :-)
I woke up at 5, a habit that will be hard to lose. The nice thing was that I could just laze around in my big 2 person bed with fresh sheets as long as I wanted! At 7 i got restless though and got out of bed to have breakfast. I went downstairs and found Fiona by herself on one of the tables in the restaurants and joined her.
18/05/12, stage 84, Yzerfontein to Cape Town!!!
The last day... It seems a long time ago that we had our first informal rider meeting at that bar in the Meridien hotel, back in Cairo. Everybody was a bit shy and terrified of the challenges ahead. Four months are gone now and the people that were strangers to me back then, are pretty dear to me now. It’s a strange thing. And it’s even stranger that this very close group of people will dissipate just as fast as we came together...
Only 93k left. We woke up cold, and damp and wet. A thick fog hang over our camp and I was woken by big drops of condens falling down on my face from the roof of my tent. It was litterally raining inside, meaning that this morning would not be the last time that I would pack my tent. Somewhere in Cape Town I have to get it out again to let it dry.
18/05/11, stage 83, Elandsbaai to Yzerfontein
In my head today was the last big day before our finish tomorrow. 145k. Relatively flat. The wind might potentially be a challenge. Otherwise I should be oke...
Yesterday Baldr proposed to ride together for one last time, for old times sake, the two Dutch people together, which meant fast riding :-) He promised me we wouldn’t go too fast though, and he promised me to keep me out of the wind as well. And so we rode together. A nice pace, but not too hard because he broke the wind for me :-) At around 50k we picked up Fred and at 60k we had a cokestop and ate an exorbitant amount of cake and milkshakes. After that it was only 10k to lunch...