Friday 3 June 2011

A WEEK TO GO

With a week to go before we leave for the start all eyes are on the weather. There has been snow at Ntsikeni and Rhodes and looking at the forecasts its -1c there at the moment, but clear !!! Tested all the cold weather equipment and clothing this week and I am pleased to say that the booties from the Uk are brilliant and we don't care that we look like dorks, not many people will see us early in the mornings anyhow, but they do keep the feet warm !! Training has not been as good as it could have been. There has been a bike hijacking in my area every weekend for the past Two months, last week six bikers were held up by 7 wankers along the same route that I ride every day. Its been difficult to do long rides and remain safe. Some people have asked about safety along the route of the Freedom Challenge, I always reply that its not a problem, it seems once you get outside of Johannesburg normality is regained and we have never felt threatened along the route. The opposite seems to be the case, people are friendly and really interested in where your going and where your from. A bike seems to be the social leveler, people accept you cos your on a bike and you seem stupid enough to be riding a long way. You will get invited into houses, farms and shops and looked after as a member of their family, its going to be so nice to ride without thinking about who is ahead of you in the bushes.

Tim arrives in Jo'burg tomorrow and we will spend the next couple of days making sure we have everything and then pack, and as said before un-pack and take out half the stuff and re-pack. The Wellness Centre Gym in Fourways has kindly offered the use of the spinning studio for us to ease our legs until we leave, thanks Wayde. We need to say thanks to 32GI who have kindly given us product to test and use for the duration of the race, I have been using it for a while but not over this long a period so it will be interesting to see how well we preform on it, their results from the Comrades Marathon were very good. Power Monkey and Magic light have been real stars with help in regards to solar power charging and lights for the bike, its been a challenge to come up with equipment that works over long periods and that is not too heavy.

I will give apologies now for all the spelling mistakes in all the bloggs from the race, I have discovered that I can update the blogg from my Iphone, I have also discovered that I need a big screen to see what the hell I am doing, so sorry .

A big thank you to everyone that has donated to our BackaBuddy fund raising, we are at R3250.00 at the moment and although we have a long way to go to reach our target we are off to a great start. Thank you.

Next Blogg from the start, its come round quick !!!!

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