My alarm was welcomed by a dark and brisk morning but i was excited like a kid at Christmas and looking forward to a little flight over Welkom as an early finishing present.
Jaag was in the car park waiting for me and had already bought me a milkshake for breakfast. It's people like Jaag that I've met constantly along the way but they still never cease to amaze me with their kindness and generosity. I don't have idols, or one person that I look up to and want to meet in my life. Instead I have many people that possess many traits that I look to add to myself to become a better person, and Jaag is one of those people.
I stood and watched Jaag as he carried out his pre flight checks. He said all his flying mates take the Mickey out of him for doing them but I was more than happy to wait for him. The last thing I wanted to happen was to crash just two days before my finish!
The sun was just rising as we set off on the runway. Another different vehicle to tick off I thought on this "ride for their lives" and there was no way I could've scripted this one! We began to float softly over the town. It felt slow and surreal at the same time. We were just hanging in mid air in a vehicle not much heavier than Nigel! Jaag did a few steep drops that made me throw up my intestines but luckily I love that feeling and it got even better when we flew just a few metres above the ground alongside deer and other wildlife.
It really was a great start to the day, a lovely gesture and i was pleased to hear that Jaag enjoyed it as much as I did even though he's done a few by now. Jaag was a bit of a boy toy fanatic and had remote control jets and motorbikes etc. I don't know what he'll get next but no doubt it will be great fun to drive! He dropped me back to the guest house bang on half 7 and Chris and Sonja were looking a bit worse for wear. I told them my not to worry about breakfast as I think I still had some adrenaline flowing and wanted to get riding as soon as I could.
I said my goodbyes and hit the empty road. It was still cold but I took the opportunity to really open the legs up and get the blood pumping. After a few hours of hard cycling I could hear and feel some rubbing coming from my front wheel. At first I thought the brakes weren't aligned properly but the running continued even after I moved them slightly.
After a few more minutes I stopped to inspect the wheel rim. Damn! It had happened again. The rim had split just like the rear wheel a few weeks ago. I knew it wasn't going to be an easy finish and now I had that suspenseful end that was only typical when considering the last 8 months. Nigel was a ticking time bomb and I really didn't know when the wheel would break completely but I knew it was inevitable so my job was to go as careful as possible and nurse Nigel to the finish line.
I detached the front brakes so they didn't rub further on the wheel rim and so the noise didn't annoy me for the next 2 days. I was lucky that the road was in good condition and quiet so my sole focus was to avoid potholes and sharp turns and hopefully the rim would last. The intensity of focus increased further when my music ran out and I was left with just the ambience of clicks and squeaks coming from various areas of the bike.
After lunch the road unfortunately took a turn for the worse and I could've been back in Ethiopia with regards to the road condition. I was back to wincing at every bump, stone and pot hole that I rode over, it was as if I was back in Europe again when I was worrying about the rear rack.
The afternoon turned into a real drag and the only thing that got me through it was my terrible singing. The scenery was unchanging and there were no houses or people to look at or say "how do" to. I happily arrived at my penultimate destination of Marquard. A place that nearly a year ago I had picked off the google map as the best place to stay the day before Lesotho and now I was there and gently wheeling my £450 dying bicycle up to a guest house that had no idea how significant they were to my life and this ride.
I knocked on the door, "hello?" A tall man answered as his wife followed up behind with a baby. "Hi there, I was wondering if you had a room for the night" (I was over camping and thought I warranted at least one more guest house!) "Sorry mate, we are closed and we have no rooms available." I wasn't surprised, i told them about my ride anyway and ended up having quite a long chat with them. They were gutted they couldn't put me up but they did their best to ring around and they found me a place called Vine Lodge that was available just 2 miles away. It was annoyingly in the direction I had just cycled but at least I knew I had a place and apparently it was really nice and the landlady was prepared to cook me Sunday dinner despite it being very late by the time I arrived.
I said thank you and moved on before the sun set towards Vine Lodge. I've told you about my perception of certain names and if its got the word "Vine" in it then you can add a few quid on for that too! I pushed Nigel up Vine lodge's long rocky driveway. I knew this was the last time I would be pushing my bike up a long driveway so I didn't mind that much.
The place was beautiful, I've been so blessed with such amazing places and yet again I had the whole place to myself if I don't include the owner and the two dogs running around on the huge front lawn. The lodge overlooked the vast open land of South Africa and in the distance I could see the mountains of Lesotho as if I was on the set of Lord of the Rings. Dinner was something special, I was sat alone at a 10 person table in a huge country manor with a selection of different foods and I just sat in pure silence an tool in for one last time, where I was and what I was doing. Meal times have always been a time of reflection, a rare peaceful calm after the mayhem of dangerous roads or physical torture.
One last time alone, one last time on the road and one last supper. Tomorrow would be the end of something amazing and the start of something even better I'd hope, for now though, I was content, I still hadn't finished!
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