After the tour I spent a wonderful week in Cape Town. First, I spent a few days with a cousin in Stellenbosch where I got to relax, ride bicycle and recover from the tour. I then went onto Cape Town to visit family and once again relax and recover. I also started a photo dvd (which I will try upload soon).
Unfortunately for
me, whilst I was relaxing a cough that had started on the ride turned into
bronchitis, in true form I tried to doctor it myself but was forced to go to
the doc. 1 round of antibiotics later, I was still hacking and thought I had
broken a rib which turned out to actually be pneumonia. The result of that was
that I had to make some tough decisions with regards what adventures I was
going to do. My next great adventure I was planning was Transbaviaans – a 230km
non-stop ride from Uniondale to Jeffrey’s Bay through the Baviaanskloof. This
was going to be spectacular but would have required intense training and
unfortunately with something as serious as pneumonia, I was going to have to
ease back into training and not kill myself so I pulled out of Trans.
I am now back into
training and have some nice smaller goals lined up whilst I think about what
the next big thing is. I have been given some nice ideas, so its just a matter
of finding time to look at the options and pick one.
Since I have been
back on the bike I have done 1 really nutty ride. Its called Critical Mass and
happens the last Friday of every month. A friend told me about it and the 2 of
us agreed to go ride this event. We started in Dunkeld at 6pm and cruised
through the streets of Rosebank, right through the Rosebank Zone (cant imagine
what the people must have thought at 100 cyclists randomly coming through the
open area of the mall), and on into town. From a historical point, it was quite
nice to ride up to the Constitutional Court and the old fort. At Juta street
the group joined the main ride (it had taken us an hour of weaving around to
get to Braamfontein) where we ended up being about 300 cyclists. The vibe was
quite something!! From there I got lost. We meandered through Mayfair and other
parts of town with us 2 roadies sticking to the front of the bunch and the
mountain bikers jumping pavements and being nutty. Its quite surreal to cruise
around a place I wouldn’t dare go in daylight at night!! One of the guys on
this adventure even had a trailer behind his bike with a boombox – very cool
except it kept blowing its fuse. After much weaving around town, we landed up
at a place called the Bioscope where there was an official beer stop. For us,
this was a bit long but the beer drinkers loved it! 20 to 30mins later we were
off again on the return journey. The great town adventure ended at Kitcheners
where most cyclists were either picked up or stopped for dinner and drinks.
This is where a small group of us ducked and headed back as we had other plans
for the evening which included pizzas.
It was such a fun
evening! And with the next one being this Friday, I cannot wait to dress warmly
and hit the streets of Jozi.
