20th June - Team Dynamics

Before I came on this trip, wise counsel told me "there are two things that are important here: yourself and your team. You are only as strong as your weakest link."

That first night in Cairo before an adventure into the unknown with five men I didn't know, the discussion was about the team and the importance of cycling as a team and having a leader on the road.

Now, six months later, I find myself laughing at my naivety. This trip is such an intense personal journey, such a challenge on a daily basis, a monumental mind game to get through seemingly endless hours, days, weeks and months on a bike. The "team" has had to take second place in so many respects. You learn waht you have to do to get through the day, whether that means cycling slower, getting away for a day or two, or bombing on ahead. But very seldom do we rely on the team for that mental support. It is just too tough out there, or they are just typical men! But the result is that we don't talk about frustrations, physical challenges, personal issues... we are individuals doing the same trip.

Suddenly, six months on, we are ending this adventure and there is a renewed concept of team. Although such an incredibly personal journey, it is a journey we have made together. It is a group of people that, despite their differences, now share one of the most incredible experiences; a patchwork of moments that stir up vivid memories in the eight of us. Feathers have been ruffled, we have had our fair share of rifts and flare ups, we have disputed, argued, and cried... but the team is intact. We have also laughed endlessly, analysed life and love, cycled along the Nile, got lost in the Nubian desert, got drunk in "dry" Sudan, chewed chat in Ethiopia, climbed mountains in Kenya, roughed it in Tanzanian mud, swum in Lake Malawi, rode motorbikes in Zambia, rafted on the Zambezi, dodged elephants in Botswana and partied it up in South Africa... We are going to cross that line together.

Thursday 19th June - Rosebank Mall

Shops. People. Beautiful clothes. Lavish fabrics. Stylish shoes. Decadent food shops. Friends from home. Comfort. People. Lots of people. Too many people. Overwhelmed.

One night in southern sudan I was forcefully separated from the team and told to sleep with the other woman in the female compound. Last night was the second night in six months that I didnt sleep under the same roof as one of the guys. They have become my world and my family, and Africa and her simplicities is what I am now comfortable with.

Then imagine me in Rosebank mall. I was so completely overwhelmed by all the choice, all the expense, the decadence, that I ended up spending 5 hours there mostly just walking around not daring to try anything on. I have become used to rotating the four items of clothes I have, was thrilled to find a Pep in Zambia, and had half forgotten how much enjoyment I get from beautful fabrics and fine textures.

The strange thing is, I am not sure that its a world I prefer.

15 June 2008

120km from Oryx Ranch to Mokapane (aka Potgietersrus).

It was a long hard slog.

Six hours in the saddle of cycling into a headwind.

Not exactly fun.

But I did get to have a six hour session of “Affairs of the heart with Gareth Brauteseth”.

Now that’s fun!

A monumental day! - 14 June 2008

This is a massive day for us. Ice has frozen to the tents and fingers ache with cold. Leg warmers, scarves, beanies and gloves – it is a chilly welcome into sunny South Africa!
The border post is utter chaos! After crossing the Limpopo and a little photoshoot with a local security guard, we join a ridiculous queue. The idea was to kill today’s 80 km quickly in order to make the Ireland rugby game at 11:30. That is unlikely now. This is the kind of chaos that has caused many disgruntled South Africans to mumble at the inefficiencies of …. Not me! No-one can wipe the smile off my face today! I feel closer to the large South African mama who is doing a little jig 100 meters down the road than the irritated woman standing in the queue with me.

I say it again: “I’m home.”

Vodacom Welcomes you to South Africa! – Friday 13th June 2008

I’m like a kid on Christmas eve. We are here. We are camped on the South African border not more than 200meters from the mighty Limpopo and South African soil. I got a text message that went “Vodacom welcomes you to South Africa” and I nearly burst into tears! I cant help but recall that first day in Cairo. Wow! We have come a ridiculously long way.

Without getting too sentimental and being likened to a tree-hugging hippy, I honestly believe that there are places in the world in which your life and the earth are in sync; places where your soul is at home. I can travel in the States and join the masses working in London, but once my feet hit South African soil I start dancing to a slightly different tune. I am coming home. I have said that a lot tonight. The guys understand my excitement, but as I say it the eighteenth time, I don’t think they fully appreciate how much this means to me! I am coming home. This is a dream actualized. Honey, I’m home!

Just a Day Job – 12 June 2008

165km from Francis Town to Selibi Phikwe – a massive thank you to the Byrons that hosted us like royalty in Francis Town.

At our campsite last night two women wanted to take a photograph of the team. We were awkward and embarrassed by their fascination with what has simply become our day job. We seem to have lost perspective out here. It is so easy to forget that what we are doing is a little extraordinary. We are restricted to the company of the team and the crazy people that we meet en route:

Andy – the bizarre Scot who cycled from home in Scotland to Durban in order to run the Comrades Marathon. He would train a couple of hours running every morning before cycling anywhere between 100 and 200km. Good luck Andy!

Eric – The Swede that cycled from Sweden, via the Middle East en route to Beijing to arrive in time for the Olympics. We met him and managed to distract him in Sudan. It seems he arrives in Cape Town, via Namibia, shortly before we do. Mad.

Random Aussie – Yesterday the team met an Australian who has been cycling since 2004. Seriously mad.

These men are testimony to the fact that no matter how strange your challenge, there is always someone doing something a little more intense, more physically challenging or more bizarre than you are. Nevertheless, this is the adventure of a lifetime. I have to keep reminding myself that I am close to the completion of a cycle across Africa!

Too close for comfort – 11 June 2008

It seems so easy to quit now. To simply throw in the towel and say we cycled from Cairo to Francis town! We are so close to home that it makes the distance uncomfortable as we tick off each new 100km. When in the remoteness of the Sudanese desert, or killing ourselves on the Ethiopian hills, it was never an option. Stopping was not something that we even considered. We were there. We were doing this thing. We were going to do this thing until we stopped doing this thing in Cape Town. What we do thereafter is up for discussion. There has been much banter around chucking our bicycles into the Atlantic for one. But now, so close to completion of this epic journey, it is that much more tempting to hop into a truck en route to Jo’burg. The next five weeks feel impossible. I could be on Clifton Beach right now. OK. It is probably ridiculously chilly there at the moment, and one probably wouldn’t want to sit on the sand in the rain, but you get my point.

Today’s 80km stretch into Francis town was a relatively mundane stretch of straight road that disappeared into the head wind. It is the first day of cycling that I have cycled the whole day with a warm top on… very cold, but a small taster for the South African winter ahead. The day involved cycling along the yellow tightrope between the verge and the traffic. No space for chat, and only one’s thoughts to entertain. And so I return to old thought processes like overworked conversations that reverberate in my mind and have done so for the past five months. Where to from now? What to do with my life? What to do for the next year? All the big questions that never really get answered but endlessly asked. In fact, one would think that all this time on the bike has given me a level of clarity in what direction I will follow. But it has done little more than open my eyes to a whole realm of opportunities and given me the understanding that once a route is chosen, the rest will follow. The hardest part is in the decision.