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Yes I am, cycling to Cape Town

127 berichten
Hello hello !

The other day Yvette and me had out most wonderful wild camping spot of our ( and my ) trip !
A lovely lake, at the other side some beautiful autumn coloured trees, green hills and a mighty rocky mountain not that far away ...
What was less nice is that we were almost shot.
Well, that was what the very angry and a little paranoia farmers son told us when he spotted us and came to us.
Saying all over again and again that we couldn't just pitch our tents onb his father land and that we should have asked ...
I tried to explain to him that we did not see a farm so we thougfht it was ok and that we were very tired bla bla bla bur he wouldn't listen or give permission. So I asked him if it was maybe a good idea to ask his father myself and he finally agreed.
Ofcourse, when the farmer looked into my innocent eyes it was ok ;-)
So I went back to Yvette and we had a great evening :-)

Another great evening was yesterday when I met my family here in south africa again, which was like 28 years ago but I still remebered my auncle and aunt ( goed he zusje ;-) en zus !
Chantelle, their daughter, I didn't remember but at that time we were both kids.
She has grown into a lovely young woman by the way and gave me ( en ook een voor jouw zus ) a present, make that 3 presents ...
How sweet ...
As said we had a great evening and I had to promise them, when ( indeed, not if ;-) I return to south africa I will pay them a visit in Durban.
Looking forward to that ...

So yeah, this morning I was quite high ...
11000 feet actually !
Up in a plane with 9 others ...
Atached to another guy ...
At 11000 feet the door opened ...
O f...k ...
One guy jumped out, O f...k
The the other duo ...
Then He moved me towards the door, legs outside and O F...K !!!
A free fall of 35, 40 seconds !!!
Flying like a bird :-)
Awesome, supercool ... actually, not enough letters here to typ what I felt ...
A once in a lifetime experience but so cool !!!

With a big WHOESH the chute opened and suddenly so quiet, sailing through the air :-)
Absolutely stunning !

Now, with my feet back on the ground, I can tell you we have 4 days to reach Heidelberg, near Jo burg.
From there we will take a lift or bus or train into Joburg, to unsafe to cycle ....

4 more days and then this cycling trip is over ...

May many more follow ;-)

Lars
Hello,

The last one snif snif ...
This trip is almost over; we are now in Joburg, monday we fly back to Holland, only this time I will not jump out of the plane ;-)

We cycled in 4 days to Heidelberg where we stayed at friends of Chantelle. Very warm people and we had a nice stay.
They brought us the next day to Joburg where we are staying at friends of Yvette.
This going from friends to friends or friends to friends of friends is typical south african ...
We stayed the other night at a farm near Dordrecht and this man gave us a list of names, places and telephone nrs where we could stay along the route, he even promised, and did, to phone these people that we were coming ... How nice and hospatible huh !
Alomst every time they invited us in to sleep ( we preferred our tents ) or for dinner and nice conversation :-)
Our last camping night we stayed at a huge farm, we were invited for the braai ( BBQ ) and a drink and the farmer told us that at night we could hear the Jackals howl !
In the middle of the night I woke up and heard them indeed howl, a great experience !

And so was the whole trip, almost 20.000 km in a little less then 9 months, a great experience !
The desert of Morocco, cycling through the Sahel countries, the rainforests in Cameroon, Victoria Falls in Zambia and Zimbabwe, the elephants on the road in Botswana, Giraffes, zebras, springbok, oryx and other species in gorgeous Namibia and finally reaching Cape Town and getting half drunk celebrating that at the waterfront, with a view on table mountain ...

But it wasn't always that easy.
I almost gave up in Cameroon ...
Blame it on the Lariam pills, the griefing process because of the death of my mother, the heat, some not so nice people in Nigeria or all of it.
Thanks to a mail from my little sister I persisted and bought a ticket to Lusaka in stead of Amsterdam of which I am now so thankful !
Last couple of months were really great and especially last month with Yvette, cycling through more than beautiful Drakensberge ...

But I wasn't so lucky with everything ...
How about 15 or 16 flat tyres ?
Too much for schwalbe marathon xr ...
Or the poles of my tent, they broke all the time and I had to repair them like 20 times !!!
My wallet got stolen as well as my world radio ...

But, lucky we were too, with the weather. Almost no rain and almost everyday no wind or a tail wind !
Clear skies, unforgettable views :-)

In Holland I made a promise to my mother to keep on cycling ...
I am glad I did, if only for my mom ...

With love

Lars
Mooi geschreven Lars en goed dat je hebt volgehouden!
Het lijk mij zeker na de dood van je moeder heel erg moeilijk om dan de kracht weer te vinden om door te gaan.

Ik vind het getuigen van moed en vooral van daadkracht om toch te blijven geloven in je zelf om toch, zoals beloofd aan je moeder door te zetten.

Ik hoop je snel te zien Lars

Groet van Mario
Goede reis naar huis Lars.
Ik zal je verhalen missen maar er komt vast wel weer een vervolg.
Dank allen en ...

Komt allen !
Naar ons welcoming weekend 13 t/m 15 mei, zie bij activiteiten en / of, leuk genoeg, op de beginsite van de wereldfietser waar je, als je dit leest, al voorbij bent :wink:

Groetjes Lars
Ik hoop toch dat ik gauw hersteld ben en erbij kan zijn komend weekend.
Groeten en veel plezier,
Rutger