Day 118 Wednesday May 8 Spokane Arrival

Rocket Riders turned out to welcome home Linda, Henry and Jeff. Tim, now back on his bike was there to take them home.

Day 117 Tuesday May 7 Leaving Cape Town

by Henry

Final post

After breakfast, we re-organized for final packing. We were able to condense everything into one duffel bag and one bike box each. We pre-arranged for a 2:30 PM van ride to the airport. Our flight departs today at 5:45 PM.

With the limited time left in the morning, we took a walk around the Victoria & Albert waterfront near our hotel. There is a seal resting at the end of the dock.

Many cities have erected a waterfront Ferris wheel; Cape Town is no exception.

The waterfront was very inviting with many inlets to accommodate hundreds of boats. Tourists filled the walkways.

Right next to our hotel, this former grain silo had been converted to a hotel (on the left), and the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (on the right).

The architect for the museum possessed a unique vision on how to repurpose the silos. It required complex 3-dimensional thinking to envision how cutting out concrete inside the silos would create this intriguing space to house an art museum.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. We returned to the hotel, loaded up our bike boxes and luggage, and headed to the airport.

View of Cape Town as we departed. It is a remarkably modern, multicultural, cosmopolitan city surrounded by beautiful waters and mountains. It is very  westernized, and what I would call “easy Africa”, compared to other places we visited on the continent. However, no one can discount the ghettos or shantytowns (called “townships” by locals), a lingering scar from apartheid.

This is the end of the road for our 4-month odyssey. It has been a privilege to see Africa this way. First and foremost, we are grateful to have completed the Tour safely. Africa remains an extremely poor continent with major challenges hindering its development. We were saddened to encounter all those African children who really won’t have any prospects or opportunities for a better life. As always, we will return to our small corner of the world with a better understanding of how those less fortunate than us manage to share and carve a life out on this planet. it will take some time for me to re-sync to the rhythms of life in America.

Day 116 Monday May 6 Last Full Day in Cape Town

by Henry

Postscript

Today is our last full day in Cape Town.

Table Mountain was entirely enveloped in the clouds today, so we scrapped our plans to ascend it. Rather, we chose to walk from the waterfront towards downtown.

A high-end Storck (German) bike store with a full coffee and alcohol bar. 

 

The historic multicultural Bo-Kaap neighborhood with brightly colored homes.

 

Residents here are termed Cape Malay, with mixed Malaysian, Indonesian, and African roots reaching back for almost 300 years. There is a heavy Muslim presence in the neighborhood with many mosques. We saw many pro-Palestinian murals. 

 

The neighborhood is loaded with art galleries. This elephant is constructed from Nespresso foil caps.

 

An enticing multicultural spice store.

 

We wandered in to this cute shop for a gelato treat.

 

To fill out the rest of the day, we hired a driver to take us on the Chapman Peak Drive, cut high into the cliffs above the Atlantic Ocean.

The views of Hout Bay on the drive were spectacular.

We returned to the hotel for a relaxed dinner with a few other lingering riders.

Day 115 Sunday May 5 Epilogue

by Henry

Epilogue (or “the day after”):

At their leisure, riders gradually filtered down to the hotel’s breakfast buffet, and we all marveled at not having to endure another day of oatmeal. We began to say our final goodbyes to those departing today, and those staying in Cape Town made plans to explore the area.

 

View from the street outside our hotel after breakfast with Table Mountain partially obscured by clouds.

We wished to celebrate with a modest victory lap. The Cape of Good Hope was an intriguing destination, However, riding there all the way from our hotel would constitute a 160 km round-trip, requiring more energy than we had in reserve. 

We decided to ride a smaller loop on the Cape Peninsula, and transported our bikes via Uber to Fish Hoek. We started our ride down the west side of the peninsula. The winds were very strong coming off the Atlantic, and the huge rolling waves not surprisingly had attracted surfers.

 

As we crossed over to the east side of the Peninsula, we came upon the entry to Table Mountain National Park. Riding all the way further south to the Cape would add another 30 km round-trip, with a tremendous headwind on the way back. We opted to turn back north here and return to Fish Hoek.

Views of False Bay as we rode along the east side of the Cape Peninsula.

We paused for a late lunch of fish and chips, and calamari.

 

We stopped at Boulder Beach, famous for  harboring the only species of African penguin. Overfishing in the last century nearly caused them to become extinct, but with the advent of careful fishing restrictions, the penguin population has rebounded, but they are still endangered.

Their nests are built directly in the sand.

 

An interesting physiological feature is that they have glands behind their eyes to excrete excess salt, since they ingest seawater when swallowing sardines and squid.

We had completed a 55 km bike excursion once back in Fish Hoek. An Uber driver transported us back to our hotel. Very sad, but that concluded our final bicycle ride in Africa.

After cleaning up at the hotel, we strolled to a nearby Turkish restaurant for dinner. We would begin the process of boxing our bicycles later tonight.

Day 114 Yzerfontein to Cape Tow! Last Ride

by Henry

Final riding day!

88 km, 425 m total ascent, 18°C maximum. Tailwind most of the day!

 

Colleen’s final whiteboard at the May 3 dinner meeting. Rain was predicted, and the drops softly landing on my tent woke me up at 5 AM. It was discouraging to realize that I would have to pack up a wet tent one final time.

 

Our last campsite was very spacious. The Tyvek I used for a ground covering under my tent was completely shot, and I was happy to throw it away this morning.

 

Less than a kilometer from our campsite, the aroma of freshly baked bread drew us into a local bakery. Although impractical to purchase and carry a whole loaf of bread, we were happy to sample some croissants.

It was a damp, cool day. We alternated between riding in the mist, punctuated with occasional light rain. There was a healthy shoulder, but the traffic got busier and busier as we approached Cape Town.

We rode by Koeberg nuclear power plant, the only one on the African continent, 27 km north of Cape Town.

Our final lunch stop was on the beach. It was simple and hurried, as the police did not want us lingering in the beach parking lot. 

We were riding into Cape Town in three separate groups, partly for traffic safety, and partly because we would be traversing a “dodgy“ part of the city. We were asked not to keep our phones or GPS computers on our handlebars to minimize risk of theft. Two bike convoys had already departed before I arrived because of pressure from the police to keep moving.

We huddled with our convoy team leader for some final words of encouragement before we headed into Cape Town.

Part of our convoy riding a bike path into the city. We were asked to stick together, and not stop to take pictures.

About 1.5 km before reaching our hotel, Pam got a flat tire. She wanted us to go ahead while she repaired her flat, but in a great show of team unity, we refused to leave her behind. Having lots of experience, she was able to swap out her tube in about 5 minutes. We learned later that the earlier two convoys had also suffered multiple flats from thorns.

 

The Radisson Red Hotel on the waterfront in Cape Town. The champagne corks had already been popped, and the earlier arrivals cheered for us as we crossed the finish line. The clouds were dissipating, allowing the sun to warm us as we mingled. 

 

The crew from Spokane. 

 

The obligatory group photo. 30 riders made the entire trek from Cairo to Cape Town. There are additional riders in the photo who joined us in Nairobi and other stops along the way.

Boxes were available in a meeting room, and packing away the bikes began immediately for most. All afternoon and into the evening, there were lots of congratulatory high-fives, and goodbye hugs. It’s difficult to put into words the admixture of elation and melancholy that permeated everyone’s emotions.

We attended a slideshow at 6:30 PM, followed by our final group dinner at 7 PM.

 

After dinner, some congregated on the rooftop bar.

Front and back of my souvenir from Africa.

Jeff, Linda, and I are staying 2-1/2 additional days exploring the Cape Town area to cap off our African adventure.

More to follow . . .  

Day 114 Saturday May 4 Yzerfontein to Cape Town Last Day of the Tour

 Jeff, Linda and Henry completed their epic journey today! They will return to Spokane on Wednesday.

Day 113 Friday May 3 Dwarskerbos to Yzerfontein

by Henry

The penultimate ride. 

144 km, 725 m total ascent, 24°C maximum.

 

TDA crew work hard every morning at 5 AM to prepare our breakfast.

It is worth looking in the rearview mirror at times; the sun rising as we pedaled due west first thing in the morning.

We passed several seaside communities. South Africans really like the white and black architectural scheme, which was present in every resort town that we passed. 

We had a long gradual climb in the morning with a strong headwind. We were all concerned that if this wind kept up for the whole day, we would be utterly spent and exhausted.

 

Morning cappuccino break. Fortunately, the wind seemed to die down after the coffee stop.

 

Surprisingly, the first McDonald’s sighting since Egypt. The franchise had not established visible inroads in East Africa. KFC, however, has been everywhere.

 

Steel plant in Saldanha. To my eye, it looks like something that could have been built for a Star Wars movie set.

 

Barrier island protected calm waters of Saldanha Bay, with no surf.

Lunch was just outside the gates of the West Coast National Park.

 

Afterwards, we cycled in and rode the length of the Park along the coast.

Baked goods never fails to draw a crowd at our coffee stops.

There was a gin tasting room which attracted many of us like bees to nectar.

 

At the same coffee break, I supported the on-site purveyor of biltong and droëwors. 

 

The rider meeting was moved up to 5 PM from the usual 5:45 PM. Colleen explained the logistics of how we would ride into Cape Town tomorrow. Congratulatory jerseys were distributed.

Libations were provided in the form of sherry and every flavor of boxed wine.

After dinner, most of us hung around to chat for a bit around the campfire, it wasn’t long before general fatigue overpowered us, and we retreated to our tents. The endless pounding surf 500 m away was a soothing tonic as we drifted off to sleep.