I am slowed down to a halt by a road worker waving a red flag just a few kilometres from my final destination. It’s in these moments on a dusty road in front of a stop-and-go boom that I begin to ponder if this might be how the magic dies for this whitewashed coastal town.
The connections between South Africa and the island of St Helena are numerous, given that Cape Town has shipped food and supplies to the remote British Overseas Territory ever since the two were bases of the Dutch and British East India Companies respectively.
The sun is bright. In fact, so bright that I struggle to see out of the front window, thanks to the dust of the Ford Rangers in the convoy in front of us. We’re seriously climbing up this mountain over rocks and ridges…
A red Coca Cola-branded water tank, a light blue skedonk with its bonnet buried in the ground, and a signboard that reads “Free Wi-Fi” indicated that this must be it. It’s hard to believe that there’s any form of network connection here so we remained sceptical…
Paris, Milan, London, New York, Simon’s Town – one need not look much further than our own backyard for a taste of the good life.
My goal was to attain my A license in sport skydiving. Part of an A license is achieved through the SLP course by completing about 37 jumps that include increasingly challenging tasks in the air.
The Silo District is the elegantly edgy new enclave of Cape Town’s famed V&A Waterfront. Cities come alive when creative forms of reimagining take place around their older or more rougher edges, and the Silo District is one of these.
French flags adorn the buildings and the classic French beret makes a fashionable come-back – donned by all who roam the streets.
There is a wish in the back of everyone’s mind. It is a wish to go back in time to a place where time means nothing. It is a yearning to be a child again, where responsibilities and worries have no hold on you. It is a desire for adventure; adventure in the great wilderness. And this small wish is stored in the back of everyone’s mind. It is there and it will always be.
“500 kilometers down, 500 kilometers to go. My two-wheeled meander around the Cape continues picking up from sleepy Van Wyksdorp and travelling to the south coast, and eventually… home.”
My preparation involved 5541km’s and 245 hours of training over the 4 months leading up to the Epic. According to my bike computer, this burned 166199 calories, which is roughly 654 hamburgers.
