We did it!!!

Hey Team Janet-and-Chris-in-Africa!!!
We did it!! We arrived in Cape Town on May the 12th to a buzz that was unbelievable and a huge crowd of family and friends of the TDA riders from all around the world, including my dad who had traveled all the way from New Zealand. There were also a few surprises such as Rich one of our clients and friends from San Diego who was at the finish line. I looked up after crossing the line and there was my dad who I knew would be there and standing next to him was the fabulous Rich. Great fun. Jan from Holland got to the finish line and the next thing he knew he had a blonde hanging around his neck giving him kisses. His wife had flown in to surprise him and Rach our lekker TDA staff member knew she was coming but it it very secret. It was a blast to see Jan's face, he was beaming from ear to ear..very much an 'ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh' moment. Chris and I both enjoyed Jan's company on the Tour, not only racing but also socially and we will be hooking up with him next February in Canada as Jan is a hot cross country skier!!

Besides family and friends there was also an array of African dancers and drums and members of the public at the waterfront who were just hanging out in the shopping area wondering what on earth all these cyclists were doing. The Cape Town Waterfront complex is very much like the Auckland Viaduct and a really good looking place to have a race finish. Seagulls, boats, lots of noise, shops, restaurants, people having lunch under umbrellas etc. The weather was superb - hot and sunny and a great view of Table Mountain in the background, we couldn't have asked for a better day. Once we arrived at the finish, our bikes were taken by little helpers who placed them in a safe place (a tent near the ampitheatre) and we all then had to get flags of our respective countries and proceed in an orderly manner to the ampitheatre where the Mayoress of Cape Town was going to welcome us and then give us our finishing medals. We all had on our new Tour d'Afrique Cycling bike jerseys and so I must say we all looked great. We had to stand on stage during the official speeches and then it was team photos, individual country photos with flags and then we were given a little reception nearby which included champagne and food!! All this happened between 2 and 4pm and it was quite emotional and hectic at the same time. Lots of hugs and kisses and hellos to TDA family members who were busy putting faces to names that they had either read on the official TDA website or the individual blogs. It was madness!!

However, girlfriends - you would have been proud of me - while all of this madness was going on - I managed to:
1. circulate,
2. give all the team congratulations-we-did-it-hugs
3. find my husband who had disappeared earlier in the day - read the next paragraph AND more importantly
4. also managed to nip out to do a spot of shopping and buy a hot dress!!! On Saturday morning while we were all riding in to meet the police (who were going to lead us convoy style into Cape Town), a couple of the riders asked me why I was riding so fast! My response - I'm on a mission to find a dress! After 4 months of being on a bike I was not about to turn up to the finale dinner in bike shorts or REI overland/cargo trousers. I had been telling all the girls that I was going to buy a little black dress and I did, in record time - less than 10 minutes. Inbetween sipping champagne and eating spring rolls I bought a dress. I could tell by the look on the faces of the women in the Marion and Linde store that they were not used to seeing a female cyclist in cycling gear including the mandatory clicking Shimano cycling shoes! I asked for a little black dress that had to cover the cycling shorts tan lines on my legs and without any hesitation one appeared. I put it on and it looked hillarious with my cycling shoes but as the assistant said..if it took 12,000km to get legs like mine she would ride a bike too! I didn't have the heart to tell her that legs like mine were genetic but hey if it means another woman hits the tar pedalling then who's checking little white lies huh!

So re lost husband. We left our beach camp at 7.30am and had until 12.30pm to make it to the point where the Cape Town police were going to convoy us into the finish line. It was only about 60km and Chris didn't see the point in hanging around when he could ride all the way to Cape Town, check into the hotel we were all staying at, shower and eat all before our arrival at the finish line at 2pm. So, he did just that!! Some of the riders were concerned that he would not be with us at the finish but he was. We couldn't miss him. All our gear was on Doris the truck and so when Chris got to Cape Town he went to the Nike store and bought some clothes as all he had were his cycling clothes. He also bought some new running shoes..racing flats that could be seen in the dark. There was Chris..black shorts, white t-shirt and irridescent green shoes. The team all laughed when we saw the shoes ..honestly they were bright!!! He joined us on stage with the TDA cycling jersey but those shoes....they were bright. I will publish some photos when I get back state side and you will see them gems!!!One other husband got lost as well.....when we got to the convoy start point Adrie wasn't there either, Eva and Jan and the rest of the Dutch group had no idea where he had got to. Turns out that he missed the traffic light (or robot if you are from South Africa) and he inadvertently rode into Cape Town. Hillarious that the number one and two racer boys missed the convoy..one planned it, the other missed the right turn and sailed through to Cape Town.

After the medal ceremony we all had the task of emptying out our red boxes as Doris was leaving the next morning to head back to Joberg. What a job. Chris and I donated most of our gear to the 'give it to someone who needs it pile'. We gave our mountaineering 5 season tent to Joash from Kenya as he is a mountain guide on Mt Kenya and Kilimanjaro when he is not guiding the blind rider Douglas. His face was priceless when I handed it to him. He deserved it..he worked his ass off for Douglas and if he was riding individually he would have given Chris and Adrie a good running especially on them hills! We gave our thermarest sleeping mats to Jack, our camelpack hydration units to Windy from Ethiopia with instructions to give one to Mahmoosh who was one of the riders we rode with us in Ethiopia. Spare bike parts and tyres went to the pile as well as Chris's cyclocross shoes which were on their last legs, water bottles went in the rubbish pile and so compared to when we started back in January we're currently lighter in terms of gear. While doing all this and trying to get it done before the dinner time of 7.00pm we found out that there were no accommodation bookings for the African Routes guys - Trevor and Wimpey which we thought was really poor. These guys worked their butts off for us and you would have thought that TDA or AfRoutes management would have made sure the boys had some kind of room for the night. I guess they could have slept on the truck but Chris and I thought that sucked so we did the right thing in our minds and booked them a room. Trevor and Wimpey deserved it and we were pleased to see them at breakfast the next morning - slightly worse for wear - after our finale dinner but having had sleep and food before embarking on a 20 hour drive to Joberg.

The dinner was great and the prize giving was good for Chris and I - having won some sections between us we got books for those section wins as well as overall second place trophies in the form of African masks and bowls. How we are going to pack them is anyones guess but we'll figure it out.

Today is Saturday 19th and we are in a coastal town called Plettenberg Bay which is on the Garden Route. Chris is doing a work out at the Virgin Avtive Gym as his legs are doing crazy things like cramping so bad when he runs that he can hardly walk.He's found that if he does a cycle first..yes can you believe it - he can run after and so he needs the gym as we left our bikes in Cape Town. As for me, my body is in great form. I did an hour and a half run this morning along a river trail about 50km away at a Lodge we stayed at and it was great. My dad was with us this past week and we had a good time. We left Cape Town last Monday and stayed in Stellenbosch at a boutique wine/country lodge called L'Avenir..as you do..Monday night. It was a blast. We were the only people at the lodge and so it seemed like we had our very own country house for the evening. It was a beautiful place. Wine tasting in the afternoon, fire place, luxury couches and cheese and a bottle of their 2005 Pinotage to kill time with. Much better way to pass the day than riding a bike huh!

We then went towards George and stayed at the Point Hotel in Mossel Bay..superb views of wild coastline. Very much like New Zealand. Dad took lots of photos and then it was on towards Knysna where we had lunch in the harbour and then mossied onto Plettenberg Bay where we stayed in a really nice B and B. Small world. The owners two sons are golfers in the states. One was on the PGA tour until he injured his wrist and had to have surgery and now on the Nationwide Tour and the other son is on a golf scholarship in Columbia.We talked sports over breakfast and gave them my business card just in case he needed a second opinion regarding his rehab. Dad had a flight out of Port Elizabeth yesterday hence our need to get there by Friday and so we drove from Plettenberg Bay - past Goose Point - Gary Players home golf course to Port Elizabeth on Thursday. We stopped off in Jefferys Bay - a renowned surf spot for lunch and checked out the break where the Billabong surf competition will be held in July. Nice break and beautiful beach --once again though - I swear I could have been in one of many beaches in New Zealand.

It's great to see South Africa keeping their beaches, road sides and national parks so clean but it does bother me to still see the poor housing that many African native people still live in. It's been 15 years or so since the end of segregation and a lot has been achieved but when you see the projects/tin shacks for housing along the sides of the roads - hundreds of them across the road from fabulous million dollar houses it still causes a lump in my throat.Maybe in twenty years time it will be a thing of the past, Here's hoping.

OK so Chris is back from his work out..time to eat.
Hope you are all well. Off to check out Ostrich racing.
Cheers