I left the Cape on 91kg and returned on 84kg ... not much less, but I recon a lot is pure muscle ... ;-)
I was real skinny and gaunt in Arusha ... 5 days of hectic runs ... but put a lot back on as the food got better closer to South Africa.
I have not been able to take my measurements ... as I do not have an appropriate measuring tape ... mmpph ...
I know I'm going to leave some people out of this ... purely by mistake ... and I'm sorry if I forgot ...
Firstly to all of you reading this regularly ... thanks for sharing this most amazing trip with me! Thanks for the comments and thoughts and those for just reading it regularly.
First and foremost ... thanks for my brother, parents and Phil Head ... for being my contacts back home for queries, needs, computer stuff, blog updates ... and boet for keeping my life back home on the right road!!! I couldn't have done this without you ...
Obviously also thanks to Tammy for looking after the practice.
Thanks to all my family, friends, clients and others who bought raffle tickets and contributed financially to my trip!
Gecko cycles for my bike and stuff and the sponsors of the prizes ... look right on my blog page ... for your contributions.
Lastly thanks to all the riders and staff on this trip ... the organisation and trip itself was absolutely superb! and the riders were real great ... really nice to have met you all ... some more than others, and I'm sure you'll know who ...
There are two things that are near to unbelievable and that I will be forever grateful for ...
The Weather
It was simply amazing! It is crazy to believe that we only had two days where it rained ... I only had a good 40 minute (torrential) downpour in Tanzania and then another good hour or so just over the border into Zambia. Furthermore probably only another two times where it spat briefly ... and we hardly even noticed it. And last year they had three weeks of rain every single day!!
We did have several nights where it rained ... we counted 14 nights in total.
Besides the lack of rain, the temperatures were also really great ... Egypt was not too cold and Sudan not too hot (the hottest though was a good 47 degrees). It really only got chilly again down the west coast of South Africa.
... But therefore it has been pissing with rain for most of the time back in Cape Town.
My Tyres
I didn't need to fix one tube/tyre while on the road ... YEEHA!!
For anyone doing this or a similar trip ... tubeless IS the way to go.
I must admit I did break 5 or 6 spokes over the trip ... but then I didn't have the best spokes ... and I will learn from this!
Regarding the tyres and tubes ... I punctures two tubes (which were in my slicks), but both were filled with slime, so they stayed inflated and I merely changed them at a later stage when servicing my bike. I had to refill the slime in my tubeless off-road tyres once, when there were some holes ... but they easily sealed with the slime. I also had one majorly irritating rest-day where I really struggled to seat my slicks to my rims ... a note to all wanting to use tubeless and fit slicks - try them out and find a pair of tyres that seat easily. All of us tubeless riders eventually ended up using Michelin XCR Road Tyres/Slicks ... they seat real well!
Sailing at sunset ... ah ... how nice it is to be back in Cape Town ...
Cape Town from Table Mountain
Gee ... it feels like easter ...
The South Africans!
Ze Germans and ze Zwiss, Ja!
Adri, Patrick and Eva
Party Time!
Andy C. ... in the final convoy ... any guess which country he comes from ...?
Done It ... YEEHA!
Patrick, Tiger and Helen Zille
Thanks Boet for all the help and support ...!
And they all came to see me!! ;-)
The SEA! ... Eilands Bay
Patrick and Remy ... after the race leaders fitted "Race Leader" signs ...
The roads are always long and straight in Africa ... merely tarred back in S.A.
Remy, Janet and Gerhard in Melkbos Strand
Phil's Bike ...
Andy ... when you going to cut your hair?
Phil, Remy and I continued to alter, hide, deface and torture each others bikes and rides ... as noticeable with Phil's bike in the picture above. Some people also kept growing their hair ... either too lazy or they couldn't find a hairdresser ... Andy P. looked especially sexy when he took his helmet off ...
We had one more dirt road section thru to Eland's Bay ... where we got to see the sea!! YEEHA! The second last day, to Yzerfontein was really quite tough ... we were all real tired, head-winds all the way and a definite chill in the air ... but arriving here was a definite highlight for me ... it is nearly like home (I work a lot at a stable yard around the corner and I used to own a smallholding up here till two months ago).
Hi there all!!
I've done it ... actually several days ago already ... I've just been running around like crazy and haven't set up my computer yet (sitting in Stellenbosch in an internet cafe) ... and therefore only sending this out now ... we cruised in last Saturday and have not stopped since ...
It has been absolutely amazing!! The best thing I have ever done and worth every penny and all the debt I have accrued to do so!
I'll update you all with information and pics early in the next week ... still running around with friends from the tour and trying to find some peace and quite here and there - actually, to be honest, I would rather be back in Sudan in the open, empty sand-pit with little to do and surviving out of my little red box ...
Well, I've got a couple more tourist destinations to go thru ... off to Hermanus and the wine farms today, Greenmarket Square on Saturday and dinner here and there. Already done Table Mountain, Cape Point, Peninsula Tour and some sailing (Thanks Rob Meek and Gordon Kling for the sail) ... weird how one becomes a tourist in one's own town ... ;-)
Later guys and gals ...
Back in South Africa ...
Well, I'm back in South Africa ... exactly four months since I flew out of Jo'burg International (I know the name has/is changing, but I prefer the old one).
We stayed at a lekker camp ... Fiddlers Creek ... just on the Orange River, on the RSA side. We have made it to Springbok and are spending some time in this major city ... well, not really major.
Once again we have another little bug going around the camp ... my stomach packed up two nights ago and I've been blessed with a head cold too ... lets get it over with now and then come charging into Yzerfontein and Cape Town in top gear on the weekend.
Well, this will probably be all for a while ... don't think we will have more e-mail connections pre-Cape Town ... so I'll do some more from home (wherever that is going to be ...?) and sumarise some other information too.
Well, hope to see lots of you back home soon. I'll need a holiday to recover and get back into things ... so to all my dear clients - I'm only going to get back into the swing of work towards the end of the month ... end of May!
Lotsa luv all
Patrick
P.S. ... lack of photos was due to lack of USB connections on computers since Botswana
Namibia - heading to Ai-Ais (as if you couldn't guess!)
Quiver trees at Garas Park
Quiver trees earlier in the day (notice arty composition of photo)
Gerhard you should cycle not push
Go tandem, go!
Gunther stocking up for the day
Here comes Thor!
Hi there all.
Just a quick note to say hi!!
I've had a nice ride from Windhoek ... not too cold, a little boring and monotonous regarding the scenery ... but really beautiful and good fun!!
Had another problem ... or rather repeated issue with my one eye ... pain, red, swollen and real shit ... ended up going to the specialist at the Keetmanshoop Hospital ... nice, friendly "front shop" staff ... useless Dr to say the least ... as a fellow cyclist said: "She might as well have kicked you in the balls and you'd have had the same results!" ... i.e. USELESS!!
Otherwise real well ... entered the Ai-Ais area today ... real beautiful and back on dirt road - real good dirt road! Went to the Fish River Canyon for sun downers ... awesome ... and enjoying some drinks for the nurse's birthday this evening.
Off for a rest day at Ai-Ais tomorrow and then cross the border the next day ... back HOME!!!
See you soon, and I'll update this again from sweet old South Africa
Lotsa Love,
Patrick
Well ... it has been nice and relaxing here in Windhoek. I need to go back and pack my bags, clean my bike and then enjoy a quiet braai.
We have two tough weeks left!! And lotsa the guys are getting a bit grumpy and cranky by now ...
We are all starting to focus on Cape Town ... and our final night in Yzerfontein on Friday 11 May ... party, drinks and emotional farewells ...
We are having our official Welcome Procession, etc at the Waterfront Amphitheatre around 14h00 on Saturday 12 May ... but I presume we will arrive closer to 13h00 and get time to say Hi! to family and friends ...
... see you there!
Well, we have arrived in Namibia ... more specifically Windhoek and am now travelling thru more familiar territories ... nothing majorly new for me therefore, except doing the routes by bicycle this time.
Herewith a brief summary of what I've felt, seen and experienced on the way ... these are all relative generalisations and dependent upon my personal experiences ...
Egypt
The cycling was fast ... very fast ... on tar roads, with a tail wind and while everyone was still strong and energised. Lots of desert and open space ... where there is no farming and settlements ... and quite lush and dense vegetation (plus farming) along the River Nile.
The country as a whole is probably the least memorable of all of them. The country is fairly dirty ... litter all over! And the people are in general very pushy and irritating ... constantly trying to sell stuff, get you into shops and just pester you non stop.
With regards to the Pyramids, Temples and other sights ... this country DOES surpass all others on the trip (with respect to sights and history) and has so much history and knowledge tucked away!!
Egypt was quite cold at night (especially around sunrise), cool and windy during the days, but warmer as we went south.
Sudan
One of my favourites by far - for the awesome people and the endless space! I love the open, empty deserts. The sand, sand and more sand - split thru by the Nile and the lush green vegetation where it flows. The calm and peace ... and pure nothingness! The cycling was tough in the soft sand ... and it is sad that they are building a top-notch tar road throughout ... so those heading here in three years time will loose lots of this feeling ...
The people are wonderful ... friendly and real pretty. More so in the North. Further South, to Ethiopia, one looses the sense of freedom and openness as the country becomes more developed and populated, for some reason the relaxed, open friendliness of the people also becomes more reserved and distant.
Hot, hot, hot during the day ... dry and dusty!! To begin with evenings were still cool, but later got quite warm.
Ethiopia
This place takes the cake for beauty, mountains and mixed emotions! I will definitely come back here! We covered about 1 800km in three weeks and had a total accumulated elevation of nineteen thousand meters! The mountains just keep rolling on-and-on. The countryside is also very green, tropical, lush vegetation.
The people (and there are millions of them ... 50% of the population is 18years and younger ... i.e. children everywhere) all mean well - and they are all merely greatly interested in these spandex clad, colourful people on racing machines. Unfortunately their constant screaming, monotonous questions, stone throwing and unsocial (by our standards) behaviour at times caused lots of unhappiness and heated debates amongst us.
I personally believe they are not evil and merely struggle to communicate with us as we race thru their back yards ... and I'll be back to see more for myself later.
We had some cold and damp weather, cool nights ... but mainly due to the high altitude. Days in general quite warm.
Kenya
TOUGH! Northern Kenya has a total lack of comfortable cycling roads ... and caused lots of pain and discomfort. Up North the country is very beautiful and empty ... but apparently occupied by many bandits and thus not too safe.
Further South it becomes lush and populated. The roads become better ... although quite potted throughout. We felt like we found civilisation again when we got good roads, ice-cream and cold milk in the fridges. But unfortunatelly a little dirty and neglected in many areas.
Overall it is a country with many opposites ... with respect to roads, people and the countryside. Unfortunately it didn't live up to the "sparkle" of Africa I had somehow imagined and dreamt of from films and stories of old colonial Africa and ended up merely being another country on en-route ...
Hot days, comfortable nights ... the odd shower at night ...
Tanzania
Alongside Ethiopia ... as number one for lush, green beauty and hills galore. I absolutely loved the route. We had top notch tar roads and dirt roads fit for hell. The rains caught us briefly (actually so far on our trip I have had only two days of rain in over 100 days of cycling!!) and turned everything into an interesting logistical task of getting trucks thru and finding suitable camps.
The people are really great, plentiful snacks and drinks along the way and some real tough cycling.
The best part was the way up to Mbeya and then over the range and down to Malawi ... simply breathtaking beauty!!
Warm and a little humid ... but not bad. Some night showers and some major rains on one or two days ... should have been much more - but we were real lucky!!
Malawi
Correctly labelled The Heart of Africa ... nowhere will you find more friendly locals ...! They were extremely friendly, well spoken and interested in what we were doing. Also very clean ... hardly any litter anywhere.
The Lake was amazing ... it has been a dream for a very long time to come swim in Lake Malawi ... and definitely worth the wait for the water and the views. Chitimba Beach, close to Livingstonia, is an amazing place!!
The roads were definite "rolling hills" ... and got quite tiring ... which continued into Zambia.
The days were quite hot ... intense, burning heat ... but also quite humid. We had our worst night on the trip - pissing all night and hot and humid at the same time ... aagghh!
Zambia
Zambia is a real nice place ... not brilliant, but not bad at all. The route is continually "rolling hills" ... tough and tiring!! And the route becomes quite boring and monotonous ... tall grasses along the sides, few people and hill, after hill, after hill ... it was the first time I started feeling a little bored and the legs started hurting ... !!
We were lucky we had a fair amount of cloud cover ... as it could have been a lot hotter. We had our second day of pissing rain. The roads are totally potted with potholes for about 100km inwards from both border crossings.
Botswana
Lekker Land of Elephants!! I really like this place ... and will come back real soon. I'm actually a little disappointed in myself that I haven't been here sooner ... and I live so close ...
The roads were real tedious though ... kilometers and kilometers of endless flat roads ... actually: Flat, No Bends and Turns, No People, No Coke Stops, Little Vegetation Changes and Lotsa Wind! I also found the place to be real clean and tidy all round.
The elephants along the national road are amazing ... the (stupid) racers ploughed along day after day and even passed one herd of roughly 25 elephants without seeing any!! We took our time and saw plenty ... at one stage I was lost in my own world and suddenly had one mock charge me from the right at only 5m away ... "heel boy!"
The heat was quite intense ... and the nights were still very comfortable, with the odd chilly morning just before sunrise.
Namibia
This country is real great ... I have loved all my trips here so far! The experience so far though is different ... long, slightly undulating roads, little spectacular views and very few people along the road.
Now I know what Namibia has to offer, cause I've been here before ... and it has a lot of amazing places and sights! It gets me thinking of our current trip thru Africa ... where we obviously see very little and definitely miss out on so much more ... the little we experience and see along the way is minuscule compared to what every country has to offer on a whole!
The nights have become very cold all of a sudden! The days are still hot and intense ... but bound to cool off even more as we head south ... I actually just went shopping to get warmer trousers and a decent fleece top.
South Africa
Well ... I'm excited to see how I feel riding thru the country ... it is home and I do know it quite well. I would have loved our trip to go thru the Southern cape or Wild Coast, even Natal or Mpumalanga ... as these have such amazing views and sites to experience. But traffic would have been hell thru here and the extra time would have been a bit tedious ... we all seem to be getting to the end of our endurance abilities ...
And the weather ... well Cape Town and the Westcoast is currently real cold, pissing with rain and snow on the Swartberg Mountains ... aagghh!!
Thanks a lot for dinner and the night's accomodation ... it was nice to get an evening of peace and quiet, a good German meal and a nice comfortable bed ... obviously also great to see and catch up with you.
Hope you enjoy/ed your holiday!
Ciao
Howdee Bart and Paula ... congratulations on the birth of your little one ... Julia.
Hope all is still well. I'm real happy for you guys and hope you are still getting some sleep now and then. Not sure if you trust me ... but I can take her for a cycle some time and you guys can rest and recover ... ;-)
Cheers and see you soon!
Sorry everyone ... no pics being added here ... I'm in a nice, decent internet cafe ... but they don't have USB connections to connect my camera for picture downloads ...
Also not too sure when next we will have internet access ... but will try sooner than later to put some stuff on the blog.
Hello everyone!
We have arrived in the sleepy, slow, mellow town of Windhoek. We have had several tough, long days on our bikes and therefore need and treasure our two days off here ... where there is not much more to do than relax, shop, go to the movies and do nothing ... obviously eat and drink in huge amounts ... ;-)
Windhoek is by far the mellowest (if that is a word?) capital city on our whole route. As they say here: If there are two cars in front of yours at the traffic light ... it is rush hour! The school holidays started yesterday, so we do have endless little brats running around the shopping mall and energising the internet cafe with us.
Thank God we have a bit of a cold front here too ... although obviously nothing like Cape Town and the West Coast at the moment ... the temperatures are in the low twenties, but expected to chill way more at night as we travel south over the next two weeks ...
... Now (exactly - 13h30), in two weeks, we should be at the Waterfront. Apparently the official welcome/arrival is at 14h00 ... but i recon we should be in about 13h00/30 on Saturday morning.
We've made it too Namibia!!
We had a killer 208km trek yesterday ... long, tough and windy ... and ended just over the border in Namibia. Had a good night's sleep and today enduring a real tough 165km trip to Witvlei ... real bad wind and long , flat boring roads.
Well - sorry we have nothing new and exciting - also no photos of note ... maybe I'll photograph my right foot or rear tyre to give you all something new.
All the best ...
Patrick
Sundowners with my folks at the Zambezi, just before the waters fall
Breaking wind just before the (time) trial
At the Zambezi ferry (Zambia to Botswana)
Howzit everyone ... just pulled into the little town ... god-forsaken outpost ... of Ghanzi, in Botswana.
Yes ... i'm here real early ... got a little bug ... just like half the cyclists on tour at the moment. Sore throat, snotty, headache, etc ... but need the rest before tomorrows marathon stage of 208km!!! The longest on the trip!!
Otherwise we are all well. Boredom has set in with many people. Less than three weeks to go ... yeehaa or aagghh?!
the roads are still flat, flat, flat. As Al pointed out in the comments ... a fair amount of donkeys - and horses - along the road ... seemingly wild? But nothing like further north in Africa. Only sighted one local cyclist on the road for the whole of Botswana.
Oh well, that is all for now. I'll update later re our arrival in Cape Town ... time that is ... but am expecting around 12h30 on Saturday 12 May 2007 ...
lotsa love
Patrick
we went over the 9000km mark yesterday ... so less than 3000km to go!!!
chat again in Namibia and see you all soon in Cape Town ... 12 May 2007
Hi there again.
We just went on a real awesome flight over the Okavango Delta ... in a little six seater Cessna plane ... and saw loads of animals (and water obviously) ... elephants, giraffe, gnu, zebra, hippo, snakes, ants, termites and lots more.
Thank God we went at eight o'clock already ... the ground is not that hot yet, so we had little turbulence. And still I felt like absolute shit ... I don't think I have sweated so much on my trip yet ... I came out literally green and sopping wet and a major twitch in my hand from continually thinking I may need my barf-bag.
Well, I've done my shopping, internet and the flight ... so I'm going back to the hotel to relax and lie at the pool for the whole day ... ;-) What a life ...
cheers
Hi there all ... arrived in Maun, Botswana just now. Came straight thru to the internet cafe ... getting it done today so that we can enjoy our off-day tomorrow!
Well that is all for now. This country is really great and I'll be coming back here soon ... so if anyone is planning a holiday and wants to come with me ... see you soon.
cheers
patty
And who said there are no Tigers in Africa (my new squeaky bell ... the Croc lost his voice)
Chasing down Remy on the LONG, STRAIGHT roads of Botswana
The African Tigers ... Team Time Trial
More monsters right next to the National Road thru Botswana
Ex-Fatty Patty cruising thru Botswana
