The last day.........

A fantastic day in Cape Town, very little wind, blue skies and a slight chill in the air. Leaving Fishhoek and heading around Cape Point we got great views of the Cape. Unfortunately Chapmans Peak is closed, being short of time we were also not able to get all the riders to Camps Bay in time so, we jumped into the vehicles at Kommetjie and out again at Suikerbosse and road into Camps Bay just before twelve.

Nando's once again hosted the riders and some of the children of Grabou to a lovely lunch. Some of these kids had never seen Camps Bay or bicycles like ours so it was a great experience for all of us.

I would just like to take a moment to thank Steve, Di and Selle from Daytrippers for making sure we got to each location safely, for feeding us and transporting all our junk.

To Elana and Ingrid for helping Steve, and Selle especially with the accommodation issues we had, and of course for the well needed massage services.

To my friend Kelly who worked tirelessly on this project and for putting up with our not so small requirements.

To Bron I know you wanted to be here, thanks for all your help behind the scenes.

To my sponsors thank you, thank you for all the money, these kids will benefit from your generosity.

To my fellow riders, Kobus, Mark, Michelle, Deon, John, Kevin, Kelly, Luke, William, Julia, Jacquie, Siphiwe, Andrew, Lizzie, Chris, Michelle, Rui, Keith, Cairen and Mike. Thank you for making this tour an unbelievable and brilliant ride filled with fun and laughter, sweat and pain, I hope you got as much out of this as I did, I look forward to seeing you all again next year.

The second to last day.

Waking up at 7am this morning the rain was pouring down, at breakfast the general consensus was not to ride and we would go in the cars off to Muizenberg and then wait for the weather to clear and head towards our end point which was Fishhoek.



Typically with CTN weather changes quickly, by the time we had finished breakfast the rain had cleared and it looked ok to ride.



Most of us decided to ride and ran off to change, leaving later than normal at just after 9am, the route today took us from Paarl through to Fishhoek via Stellenbosch. We had decided to make a stop in at Stellenbosch as Kelly reminded us there was a Vida Cafe' there, and desperate we all were for a cup when we reached this beautiful university city. A quick stop off at our new offices in Winelands was next on the agenda, some of the JHB staff had not seen the office so it was a nice interlude before we pushed the last kms through Khayelitsha and onto Muizenburg.

What we didn't expect but definitely got was, the hard cross winds on the Cape Flats which meant we had to work extra hard, the road is not great here and having to ride single file with no hard shoulder left us all feeling a tad tired once we reached Muizenburg. The last few kms took us on the Argus route to the Calder Hotel which had been newly renovated, we were the first to stay at the Hotel and it was a nice experience.

This was the last night of the tour so dinner at the Bohemian was the last chance to kick back and relax after a hard weeks riding and we had a lot of laugh's over a great meal and show from Pearl and Iain the cabaret show.

The last day is always emotional, we should reach Camps Bay around 12 where we will meet the kids from Grabou at Nando's

It only takes one idiot to start......

We were treated last night to the most wonderful dinner at the farm of the B&B owners, Paddy and Peter Hugo who opened their house up, managing to rustle up a braai of chops and chicken sosaties and LOTS of wine.........which then led to a bet.

The bet was........if Mark Elliot could ride up and down Dutiotskloof pass twice for my one ascent and descent I would put R1000 towards his Starfish account.........you can only imagine the banter from then onwards.

So we woke this morning had a great breakfast, I must admit I was a bit nervous! I am not the best of climbers, Mark is an ex-pro rider and the odds were stacked against me, the agreement was that we would all ride together to Franschoek have coffee and then the race was on. Mark's team members included Michelle Harris and Kobus Burger. I had John, Rui, Chris, Michelle, Kevin, Deon, Andrew and Lizzie on my side, we knew that all we had to work hard to get to the bottom of the climb and then Kevin, John and wing man Andrew had to get me up the hill, Mark had to get up and down twice.

All I can say is I was VERY lucky to have Kevin and Andrew on my side, they got me from the bottom of the climb to the top, when I was tired they got me going again, they encouraged me and most of all stayed with me all the way to the top. On our way up Mark flew past us on his first descent, I was aiming for the radio tower at the top, what was around the corner was not expected and the additional 1.5km climb was just not welcome at the end of the climb, once we reached the top I turned and starting riding, pushing as hard as possible all the way down the hill hitting 71km at the fastest point.

Once I had turned, within the first km Mark was on his way back up again so I knew I had to peddle hard, digging deep I pushed as hard as I could, I did get to the bottom before Mark but trust me, one more km and he would have caught me.

What an awesome experience, great fun to compete against someone really fast and strong and what amazed me was how quick the guy climbed this 10.5km hill.

We are in Paarl tonight at the Pontac Hotel, looking forward to the ride into Fishoek tomorrow hoping the weather will hold like today and be kind to us.

Don't push me........

Rui tried to push Kelly up the one of the hills today, this was mistake on his part, I learnt not to try and push Kelly the first year of Starfish and the response was the same as the response she gave Rui, unfortunately this is a family blog and I cannot repeat what was said!!!!

The good news is Mike didn't get lost today and rode the correct route the whole way.......everyone finished the whole ride and of course the racing snakes led by Kobus decided to cross a flooded river, just for fun.

The guys are here telling me that I need to spice up the story and say that they waded across a flooded bridge, bikes above their heads, the route was treacherous and was definitely life threatening.

The truth is the river came up just below their knees...........

We could not wait to get away from Ceres this morning, the Ceres Inn was not the most hospitable place and the owners need a lesson in customer service, if they don't change their way they will end up with no customers.......

The rain was still coming down when we left Ceres going out the same way we came in last night which started with a bit of a climb and then an awesome decent down Mitchells pass and left towards Worcester.

The ride was quick to start with until the main guys peeled off to cross the river, Deon, Liz and I returned to the main road and hooked up with Kelly, Rui and William and carried on to Rawsonville where we bumped into Jacqui, Keith, Sips, Cairen and then headed towards Worcester.

Deon and I spotted a Wimpy on the side of the main road of Worcester I was in the shop helmet off and ready to order when I felt alone and released Deon had gone, I was left alone in Worscester with no idea where the other guys were, luckily I bumped into Ciaren and then Luke and finally Steve who took us back to the group who were quite happily having lunch and a coffee.

Leaving the coffee shop, Andrew his girlfriend Liz my training partner Deon and I headed towards Villiersdorp, the cross winds were hectic blowing us all over the hard shoulder, Deon was strong and managed to get us through the next 20km before we all decided to kick back a little until we got to the bottom of the last climb where Deon shot off the front, not wanting to get beaten up the hill I battled to catch the mountain goat until about 20m from the top of the climb, we decided at this point to cruise into Villiersdorp.

Siphewe had a great ride today and got here ahead of the the team. We are having dinner (a braai for Heritage day) on a farm tonight before we head into the big climbs of tomorrow before we finish in Paarl.

Day 3 - the day I lost my sense of humour

Just to give you some idea of the weather we experienced today, Ingrid took this picture at the top of the first climb. At this point we had completed about 75km which left around another 35km until we reached the town of Ceres but I am going back to 0830 this morning to explain how our day went.

After an awesome nights sleep we got up to overcast skies, following a great breakfast the mood was still upbeat despite the the bad weather. Leaving Reibek West the weather started to take a serious turn for the worst, within 6km we were in the most horrific weather I have ever had the misfortune of riding in. Today topped last years first day from Plett to George where we also got soaked but nothing compared to today. For 111km we rode in freezing, driving, rain and sleet which was being pushed at us with ridiculously strong winds from all angles making riding very interesting to say the least.

We reached Wellington and stopped at a small coffee shop where the staff who were fantastic, rustled up Coffee, toast, muffins, scones and fudge, this stop was a welcome break from the nasty weather but in hindsight I think stopping was probably the worst thing to do, as getting back on the bike again took a lot of effort.

We left the coffee shop and started the big climb up Baines Kloof pass, if we had ridden this hill in normal weather it would have been great, it was a good climb on a good road but the weather being what it was made the climb hard, what came after was something I do not want to repeat in a rush.

I do not often get nervous or scared on a ride but, the decent from Baines Kloof was the single most outrageously cold, nasty part of any ride I have ever done. Deon, John and I came down the hill so slowly due to the amount of water on the road, add in the wind factor, the traffic and the fact we were so cold, made it unpleasant and almost brought on hypothermia in a number of the riders.

Getting over the decent we then hit a 10km stretch of road which also was not the most safe part of the ride, no hard shoulder, trucks, lots of wind and rain had a number of us making unexpected detours off the road into the sand while the trucks flew past us. Luckily the rest of the ride once we hit Mitchell's pass, was safe with a wide hard shoulder and the wind at our backs which brought the end to the ride and our arrival at Ceres.

I think I speak on behalf of all the team today that we all took strain, learnt some amazing new swear words and for most of us spent a lot of time today getting to know ourselves. We have all come out of this a lot stronger having completed the hardest day of riding I know I have ever done.

The weather report for tomorrow is slightly better with only a 30% chance of rain. Lets hold thumbs there is an improvement.

Day 3 begins

I have a decent connection at the hotel so thought I would get a quick entry in before we start the day.

Had an excellent dinner last night, the food once again was magnificent and the staff here at the Riebeck Valley Hotel certainly went the extra mile, must say the Lemon Cheesecake had to be the best part of the meal.......

We leave at 0830 for the first real challenge of our tour, we have about 6,3km (according to Steve - we have no faith in his distances :-) ) before the nonsense starts with a small but challenging climb towards Wellington, thereafter we turn towards Ceres and Worcester and up Baines Kloof Pass, we are planning lunch at the top of the pass at the Calabash Bush Pub and then cross the Breede river before hitting the second climb Mitchells Pass, we end off with about 110km in the town of Ceres.

Now I am not the best of climbers and today is looking a tad scary for me, so I think I will be at the back of the pack for the majority of the ride.

I will report back with the details of today's ride a little later on. To those of you at work enjoy your days.

Day 2.........the long one...

Leaving the Winderness we headed up the coast towards Langebaan and Saldhana Bay, the girls came and showed the boys a thing or two about riding today, Michelle, Michelle and Lizzie proved that there is no difference between genders.



We went passed a Wimpy at about 40km which would have been an awesome stop for us, but there was no Wimpy and just renovations so we pushed on. The weather was absolutely amazing today, no wind and 28deg, most of us a sun burnt and my pommie skin is pink and sore....that will teach me for not using enough sun cream.

Today was a long ride over flat and rolling hills with a few hills thrown in just for fun. One section was about 20km which seemed to go on for ever and ever, Steve said to us that we will stop at 70km for food - he lied the stop was at 89km.

The last 30 kms became difficult after the garlic pasta which brought with it some interesting smells from the bunches - we are all desperate for peanut butter so the team have sent Andy and Lizzie into the town to buy a few jars.....

Tomorrow we start to climb up a few climbs and drop into Ceres to finish off tomorrow.

We are in a town called Riebeck West, staying in a lovely hotel just below the mountain. The massages are over and sitting in the pub drinking a few cold ones and enjoying a few plates of slap chips.

Today's highlights had to be the view of the mountains which is not given justice in my photo's, what I can also add is how different people rode today to yesterday!

I just got told a story about Kobus.....we arrived at this great hotel in this tiny town, he walks in and tells the receptionist he ordered a seaview, the poor girl didnt know what to do.