Cycling the home stretch back to Cape Town

Posted by Circling The South on 27 August 2010

Day 149 – 158 Leaving Mossel Bay – Cycling through the Overberg and the home stretch back to Cape Town

We left Mossel Bay after a great weekend of food, drink and socialising with Stefan’s family with the knowledge that our adventure was now fast drawing towards an end. The morning we left Mossel Bay started well enough, until we covered a few kilometres and found ourselves covered in a blanket of mist which made it rather unpleasant to be on the road.

That evening we made in to Riversdale where a complete stranger took us in after seeing us in the street looking for a guesthouse. Next thing we knew beers were passed around and a big braai was arranged for us. Every time that people were being nice to us on this trip we always thought that people could not be more generous and kind to us, and every time we met new strangers they were even kinder that the ones before them. This time was no exception either. The day after that we went on to Swellendam, surrounded by green hills and the odd patch of bright yellow where the fields of canola which this part of the world is famous for stood. Swellendam itself is of course a beautiful town, the massive white church in the main street a magnificent building. I will also remember Swellendam for a less pleasant experience – I had my first fall of the whole tour when cycling into town late in the afternoon. I hasten to add that it was raining. But what happened was that I tried to jump onto a small pavement as I had done a hundred times before, my tyre did not grip and just slid along the curb of the pavement. The nett effect of this was that I was sent flying onto the pavement on which I intended to ride and hit the ground with a thump. Onlookers cringed and children started crying. As quickly as I landed I flew up, jumped to my feet and grabbed my bike, trying to save a bit of face in the process. Needless to say, my two little colleagues started laughing hysterically the moment they realised I was not badly hurt or bleeding. Between the two of them they have had a couple of falls in the months gone, so they just could not contain themselves when they saw me flying through the air.

Leaving Swellendam with a bit of a stiff neck the next morning, we headed south towards Bredasdorp. Once again the green rolling hills provided us with magic scenery. Being from the Free State we are not used to so much green in one place. I constantly had to keep those other two off what they thought were massive laws for them to play on. When we arrived at Bredasdorp we met Eben Human from Die Burger newspaper for whom we wrote a series of feature articles on our trip. We went to Cape Agulhas with Eben, who arranged for us to stay at the Tip of Africa guesthouse where we were once again received in the most warm and friendly manner possible by Derick and Petro Burger. We took a day of in Cape Agulhas, visiting the lighthouse (where I was nearly blown away by the wind once I made my way to the top and stepped outside), visiting some shipwrecks and of course visiting the southernmost point in Africa.

The next day we were on the road again and by some miracle had the first strong headwind behind us for the 150-odd days that we have been on the road. We passed the quaint little town of Napier and I almost fell in love with the little place. If it was not early in the morning and if I were not such a responsible cyclist I would have been tempted to stay for a couple of cold ones at the aptly named Napierlike Kroeg in the hotel in the main street. But you can not always get what you want and we settled for a coffee at a little coffee shop with a very friendly waitress in stead. After our coffee, pumped up with caffeine and the prospect of a terrific tailwind (did I say the first one in 150-odd days?), we flew off to Stanford. We made light work of the Akkedisberg Pass and once we were over the mountain I just could not contain myself on the last stretch to Stanford. My bike just moved almost by itself, a lovely feeling to finally have the tables turned after so many days of slugging it out against the wind this past five months. Reaching Stanford earlier that we anticipated, we looked about the town and did a bit of sightseeing. We went into an interesting looking antiques shop and looked around, pretending to be interested in buying something, as one does. Lodie tried to make conversation with the guy behind the counter, an unfriendly individual of about 50 years of age. “Is this your shop?” Lodie politely enquired. The next moment the man barked back. “Why? Do I not look as if I can own a shop hey?!” Needless to say that was the end of my faked interest in any of the wares on show. Asshole. We got on our bikes again after downing the customary Coke and did the last stretch to Hermanus where my brother lives. We spent a day here, realising our time on the road was now running out fast.

The day after that we cycled along the delightful coastal road all the way to Gordon’s Bay. The scenery was amazing, needless to say. When we got to Gordon’s Bay we booked into the local backpacker’s lodge. As always it was filled with weirdoes, serious English girls working for some NGO and a guy who wanted to make a call from my cell phone. A further threat to my wellbeing was the fact that we had to sleep in a dormitory, fortunately only about the fourth time this has happened on tour. I hate dorms and think I am allergic to them. To be honest I am by now allergic to anything remotely resembling a backpacker’s lodge. But fortune favours the brave and fortunately it was just the three of us in the dorm for the night, leaving the other 5 beds vacant for the night to my utter relief. One other thing before I step of this unpleasant topic. Lodie’s bedding smelled of a girl’s perfume when he got in to bed. Oh the joys of youth travel.

The next two days we spent going around the Cape Peninsula, taking our time and squeezing the last bit we could out of this journey. We arranged to spend our last night in Camp’s Bay, so on the penultimate day of our tour we cycled over Chapman’s Peak. We have seen a lot of places of beauty in five months on the road, but Chapman’s Peak will still be under my top three for scenery. The only negative thing for me about the Peninsula was the other cyclists on the road. Since we left Cape Town months earlier people has always been friendly on the road, especially fellow cyclists. It pains me to say that we experienced exactly the opposite in this neck of the woods. People on their racing bikes are so scared that you are going to greet them that they go to extraordinary lengths to make sure they do not make eye contact as you cycle past them. I find this quite sad, but of course there were also a lot of exceptions to this.

And so finally our last day had come. We had arranged for all our friends and family to meet us at noon at the lighthouse in Mouille Point, at the exact spot we started our circle journey 158 days ago. We only had to cover about 10 km from where we stayed. We slept late, went for a breakfast at the beach front in Camp’s Bay and then slowly proceeded to the end. We stopped again at a little wooden bench overlooking the ocean, sat there for a few minutes to kill time and then got on to our bikes for the last time. It was a strange experience to cover that last two or three kilometres, knowing that the circle had been completed.

On arrival our friends and family were there to welcome us, crying tears of joy because we made it back safely. Eben from Die Burger also had one last little surprise up his sleeve. He arranged for Riaan Manser, the man who inspired our whole journey, to also meet us at the finish. It was an honour to meet the man himself, and it was great having him pop the sparkling wine with us on our arrival.

Finally our journey has come to en end. We have been on the road 158 days, pedalled 9,500km on our trustworthy (well, sort of trustworthy) bikes and had experiences that no money can buy. We are all still friends which is also an achievement in itself. And has it been worth it to quit my job and leave everything behind for a while? I certainly think so, if any of us had the chance to do the same thing again, we would be back on our bikes tomorrow!

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