Cape Town!

Crossing the border into South Africa and seeing the first sign for Cape Town, the ending of this journey was starting to become very real.  A few days ago we hit the coast and dipped our toes (only our toes mind, it was absolutely freezing) in the Atlantic Ocean.  We hadn’t seen the sea since Safaga in Egypt, a good long four months ago.

You’d think as the miles stacked up and the finish line got closer the riding would become easier, but although Africa provides the setting for the longest bike race in the world (that’s the one that we just did by the way) apparently that’s not the continent’s raison d’etre, so unfortunately the roads and terrain don’t ease to sympathise and congratulate our arrival at our destination.  The final riding days were still demanding.

We spent the final few days skirting the coast line, and unbelievably the penultimate afternoon caught our first glimpse of table mountain (at least on this occasion geography complied with an iconic feature to demarcate our finish line).  We rubbed our eyes – in both disbelief and somewhat overwhelmed with the emotion.

The actual ride into Cape Town was fantastic.  We stopped at the beach for obligatory photos with our bikes in the air, champagne guzzling and some general jubilation – this was our private celebration amongst the riders, whilst our common bond still held us tight and before our arrival would begin the steady dissipation of the norms we had built around us (acceptably smelly clothes, rushing to queue for any food on offer, uninhibited discussion of bowel movements for example).

 

Having being truck bound for far too long due to the crevice in her leg, as you can imagine, nothing was going to stop Lizzie cycling in the convoy into town.  We gathered and rode as a pack happily chatting for the last 30kms, straight towards Table Mountain and into the waterfront where a spectacular crowd of well wishers were waiting for us.  Flags were waved, medals were given out and we clapped until our hands hurt.  

How does it feel to get to the finish line of a trans-continental bike ride?  We’re not sure that we know yet.  There is utter pride, in ourselves, in those who we rode with and each of their achievements.  There is relief – we made it, the pressure is off.  There is exhaustion, of the body and the mind.  There is sadness, for the end of the most beautifully simple life style; to leave the pleasure of the road and the sights it takes you to; to part with the friends that we’ve made; to say good bye to the excellent crew who kept us heading on the right road, nursed us, kept us fed, kept our bikes working, and generally kept us smiling.      

   

It’s going to take some time to work through it all.  And whilst we are doing that, we can dream up the next adventure…..