The Big Ride - Africa is finished!

After 15 458 km on the saddle, 176 days and 19 countries, our adventure on two wheels came to an end on Saturday 31 March as we rolled into the Cape Point car park to a huge welcome by friends, family and loved ones. We started the final day’s ride under clear skies from Table View and after taking one of the new ‘Zille’ cycle lanes we promptly got lost when the lane terminated under a motorway fly over. But with a little help from a fellow cyclist we were back on track and cruising down to Muizenburg to latch onto the coast road to Cape Point. It was at this point that the fact that we were nearly finished started to hit home together with all the emotions that go with it. Part of us did not want it to end while a larger part could not wait for it to finish. We even discussed turning around and hitting Francophone Africa but this did not last that long, we wanted to get to the end. As we were leaving Simon’s Town we spotted a group of cyclists up ahead. As we got closer we started to recognise a few of the faces (I spotted my girlfriend from miles away even though she tried to hide!) and quickly realised that they were waiting for us and were going to join us for the final 24km. We were ecstatic! The ride from there up to the Cape Point entrance and then through the reserve went from just Mark and I contemplating life after our nomadic existence to a peloton of riders with some awesome banter and tale swopping. It was really fantastic and we did not want it to end. It had to though and as we got closer to the finish line we saw the South African flag raised high and Big Ride – Africa posters welcoming us home. Isobel and a colleague Kristie had set up a welcoming committee of note. We could not stop grinning as we rolled to a stop to much cheering and clapping. It was such an amazing feeling and an absolutely superb way to finish. Out came the compulsory wine and beer and we celebrated the end of six months of extraordinary experiences, experiences that will never be forgotten. We spent a number of hours at Cape Point chatting to everyone including a few random foreign tourists and could not help but relive the highs and lows of the trip as we were asked things like “what was your favourite country?” and “did you have any mechanical failures?” and the famous one “what about tyres?”. Six months ago when we started this trip in an overcast London, and after being ticked off for cycling on Trafalgar Square, actually finishing the trip seemed so distant and it was very hard to comprehend knowing how much we had to get through to reach that point. Now being in Cape Town with the trip behind us, the freezing temperatures of the Alps, the chaos of Egypt, the sands of the Sahara and the irritating kids of Ethiopia are a distant memory, only because there have been so many good and some bad experiences since then. It feels as if we have compressed ten years of experiences into six months. Every place was different, no country or region the same. Whenever we crossed a border there were different people, different religions and languages, different foods, different beers, different environments and most irritatingly so, different currencies. It’s these differences that made it so interesting and a real eye opener in many ways. What we thought we knew about Africa has changed completely. We have been asked many times both before and during our trip why we are doing it and more particularly why we are doing it on bicycles and not in a huge Land Cruiser. Touring on a bicycle allows you to really see and experience a country properly and at a far more civilised pace. You see the raw Africa, not the dressed up tourist version. We wanted to see the stuff that does not appear in the pages of a Lonely Planet, we wanted to travel slowly and take things in, we wanted to interact with the local people and eat the food they did, we wanted to see things up and close and personal (although at times this got a bit much) and take home memories of life off the beaten track. Doing a trip on a bicycle really allows, or rather it forces, you to do this which is why we chose leg power over diesel. But now it’s time to return to normal life (although you could ask what is normal?). It’s probably going to take a while to settle in again and I’m pretty sure we may end up pitching a tent in the lounge and going off in search of goat meat to go with our pasta and our favourite African beer during a bout of post trip madness. We are looking forward to it though and there is always the next adventure. You can’t have too many of those. And before you ask, we still love cycling. We even made it to the final day of the Cape Epic to welcome the riders home. We just need to let the legs recover a bit!

We would like to thank everyone who made the finish of our trip a very special day, particularly Isobel and Kristie for doing an amazing job organising everything and keeping the troops in line: our parents who made the trek down from good old Pretoria, Jo who kept the cameras snapping away and chivvied Mark along, Celeste for hosting our parents, the Coppingers for joining us on the cycle, Barry, Leigh, Janet and the kids, Marion and Brit, Belinda and Andy, Alton and his pops, Nicole from the Village and the odd tourist who got involved. Also thank you to everyone (the list is a long one!) who could not make it for all your words of support, congratulations and messages during our trip. It really kept us going. Sarah we won’t forget your messages on the website!

During our trip we were raising money for the Wildlands Conservation Trust, which is going to use the money to help fight the war against rhino poaching. We have raised just over £1000, which is fantastic. Thank you to all those who made donations. The site is still accepting donations so if you have some spare change it will be much appreciated.

Many people helped us out along the way and for this we are eternally grateful: Marco in Aosta for building me a new front wheel (it’s still good!); the Wyness family in Cairo for letting us have the run of their home; Simon for keeping us company through the Sahara and explaining the ins and outs of wheel building; the Dutchman who looked like Ronnie Corbett who gave us something to chuckle about; Rosa in Khartoum for putting up some seriously dirty cyclists and really looking after us; Frankie and the rest of the British Council teachers for showing us a good time; Jo for taking charge of getting our new wheels to Ethiopia and bringing us loads of good English sweets when she came out to Uganda; the various missions and priests who helped us with a place to stay and water in the Turkana region, Heinz Stucke, the lifelong touring cyclist for regaling us with tales of his travels and the benefits of drinking beer; Andy Blake for organising us tickets on the MV Liemba and for being so welcoming and helpful during our stay in Kigoma (our day with the kids will never be forgotten); Ernest and his wife in Malawi; Jesper and his family in Zambia, the coffee he grows is amazing; and Sekeji in Windhoek. If I have missed anyone I apologise, the mind is still trying to process things! There are many more people we met along the way who made the trip what it is. Unfortunately the list would run to many pages if I had to reproduce them here! It was great meeting you all.

Finally a big thank you to our girlfriends, Isobel and Jo, who let us go on this adventure and supported us all the way. I just hope we do not bore them to death with our stories and photographs. Talking about photographs, we need to upload the last eight countries worth. This will happen over the next few weeks. We have way to many to go through. And the answer to the infamous tyre question? I used one set only and Mark only replaced his rear tyre in Clanwilliam. I still think they are still good for another 2000km. If you are in the market for a touring tyre, go for the Schwalbe Marathon XR. We will also be posting some gear reviews and stats to help future touring cyclists.

James