CAMELS MUST HAVE DONE IT

Yes a camel must have raped me as my ass has been so sore nothing else can account for it. Tim and I have spent 6 days cycling up and down hills with packs on in a sleepy little town called Sabie. We have cycled over 5000 meters of accent, I don't remember the down hill part too well. We managed to get 30 hours of cycling in and tried and tested various foods, drugs and backside sore relief creams. The results of which are as follows, don't take a Gu and then eat a nutrition bar and a pack of biltong, you will throw up !! Water works well if your remember to fill up your bottles before you leave, and last but not least don't look up until you get to the top !!! Tim is a machine on the hills at the moment obviously his flu was just a sneeze as he really did motor up the hills, I practiced my walking and I can report that I am getting good at that too !

We have had a really great trip, the first night we were in bed by 8:30 and the last night at 6:00 it rained and was misty every morning meaning we could only start late, so we went for  Wimpy breakfast's whilst waiting for the sun to burn of the mist most days. They do a nice bacon and egg roll now for those of you that don't know. We met Tim James the Freedom Challenge record holder this morning whilst driving to Bushwise lodge, and we took him home and had coffee with him. It was great to listen and share knowledge on the race with Tim, not only is he the record holder and multiple winner, he's a nice guy too.

The Freedom Challenge have now announced the routes and hopefully the maps will be out soon so that we can print them and get them packed into our boxes that go to the 26 support stations along the route. The boxes have to be in Cape Town by the end of May so its time to start buying what needs to go into them, get the bikes serviced, repack all the gear we intend to take in our backpacks, and then repack everything again and take stuff out as the packs will be to heavy with stuff we will not need. The weather predictors are saying pack for cold, and to be prepared for snow. Bugger.

We have received our first donation into the Scholarship fund, THANK YOU, it was looking a bit bleak, you can donate into the appeal from any country and BACKABUDDY converts it into South African Rands, so if you wish to donate a few of those Great British Pounds or the Yankee Dollar, it really will be appreciated, 1 Pound is 11 SA Rand and a USD is nearly 7 SA Rand. Note to self "stop nagging " Thank you for starting us off and we will try and not get lost !!