2001 Biking South Africa

Day 29, Saturday, July 14
Boulders to Cape Point
24.2km @ 11kph

What a morning – the very best the Cape has to offer! We got onto our bikes just as the sun came over the mountains across the bay. The hills all soft greys and blues; the sky peachy pale; the sea bluegreen streaked with fire. And climbed unhurried to the Cape Point Nature Reserve on a wind-free, balmy day. Patricia de Lille, a Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund trustee, met us 5km from the restaurant and cycled this last leg with us – getting onto a bike for the first time in 30 years! Later Charl and I walked up to the lighthouse – where we placed a stone Charl had carried with him from near Messina. And experienced that odd mixture of emotions inherent in endings: relief, disappointment and elation.

We had a fantastic day today. We drove out to where Charl and I had ended our ride yesterday on a beautiful early-morning – with better weather than one has any right to expect in the midst of a Cape winter. Dad cycled with us from there – doing really well on the hills of the peninsula. Mom drove the getaway vehicle.

At the entrance to the Cape Point Nature Reserve, when we mentioned that we were expecting to be joined by Patricia de Lille, the guard said as long as she had no plans to nationalise the reserve (an issue much in the news just at present vis-à-vis the PAC)!

Patricia and her little entourage of friends met us 5km from the restaurant at the end of the road and, after our radio interview there, cycled this distance slowly with us. Brave after 30 years of no cycling! After breakfast, and thanking Patricia et al for joining us, Charl and I took our walk up to the lighthouse and placed our painted stone there and had our final photo taken. And felt…elated in a quiet way, and much else.

In the afternoon we visited the penguins at Boulders and packed our bags ready for home. And celebrated in the evening with guests at a dinner at the local fish restaurant: Charl and I, mom and dad tired after a tough trip, Bernard and Stella Kearney, Wilhelmin and her husband Robert, Glynis and her folks, and Gabri Rigotti.

Now to rest!

[Join us in Laos...]
[See current and previous trips here...]

Gail, Charl and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund thank the following donors for their generosity...

Bateman Benefit Fund; Bofin Suppliers (Pty) Ltd; Dey, Charles; Ellerine Holdings Trust Fund; Gandhi, E; Graaff-Reinet Cycle Club; Graaff-Reinet Rotary; Hendricks, Len; Heydenrych, Andre; Itsoseng Self Help Centre; JHI Real Estate Ltd; Moore, Gary; Nieuwenhuizen, Stacey; SA Reserve Bank; Schlachter, Jill; Sikhuleseni Educare Centre

Media coverage mentioning the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund...

Advertiser (Colesberg); Advertiser (Graaff-Reinet); Cape Community FM; Ficksburg News; Oudtshoorn Koerant; Paarl Post; Ride; SA Cycling; SAFM: Radio Today (x2) & Radio Lesedi; Sandton Chronicle; Streeknuus; Suid-Kaap Stereo; The Citizen; The Toasty Show – ETV