Saturday 15 November 2014

WE FINISHED!….Day 5

Day 5

Boulders Beach to Camps Bay

Our last day! After dragging ourselves away from the tiny penguins, we started our last ride, with extremely sore legs, along the beautiful South African coastline.

When we thought that day 4 winds were strong, but we hadn’t seen anything yet! While riding along the coast, the winds were so strong that some of us were being thrown around like twiglets, and even got knocked off our bikes. It was no match for our legs however, which are now well-oiled machines and we all reached the peak of Chapman’s Peak in high spirits.

The beautiful view from the top of Chapman's Peak!

The final day showed us no mercy, with 3 serious peaks in between the finish line and us (and an ice cold beverage).

Our last epic day!

Hydration has been a key part of our regime throughout the trip, and the SCEE water bottles as well as jellybeans got us all through some tough and dark times on the ride. Unfortunately for the water bottles however, due to the tough terrain and weather extremes, they aren’t looking as white and sparkly as when they first started!

Our SCEE water bottles look a little worse for wear. Lex on the other hand, looks as though he hasn't even got a little bit muddy. 

To distract us while climbing the beautiful roadside cliffs, we couldn’t resist the local crafts. While Catherine used some local knowledge to pick up a bargain of a zebra, Fiona paid double and then some for her animals, realized she had absolutely no bargaining skills, and was easily swayed into purchasing more than she actually wanted. Some pretty cool purchases regardless!

A very persuasive sales lady. 

Someone that I think needs a special mention on this trip is Serena. Not only has she been our rock and captain throughout this 12-month experience, she also managed to pull an absolute magic trick out of the bag. Serena was only able to do 2 weeks of training before coming on the ride and while telling all of us that she would be “at the back of the pack, a slow Sally, and puffing all the way”….NONE OF THESE THINGS WERE TRUE. Each and every day, Serena smashed the rides without even breaking a sweat. She was also a really fantastic coach and mentor to Fiona and Catherine, teaching them the do’s and don’ts of butt cream application, as well as supplying us with multiple carbo shots to keep our energy levels up.

How she pulled this out of the bag, we don't know!

Barry the ninja has also been a solid rock throughout the bike ride. He has proven that he, like Matt, has far too much energy. Even though we all finished the bike ride on Friday in ruins and exhausted, Barry has already signed himself up for another competition this Sunday. How he does it, none of us know…

Now for some sad news. Throughout this whole bike ride, an animal that we were all so excited to see was a baboon. When we first arrived we were assured that we would see baboons everywhere, the signs throughout the roads also gave us high hopes that we would see some of the cheeky monkeys. Yet, throughout the 5-day of bike riding, we saw no baboons :(

You win this round, baboons.
Baboon’s – 1, Phoenix Flyers – 0

The ride has been a real mix of extreme emotions, with so many highs and low’s mixed in with a lot of muscle cramps and sore knees. We have all been so privileged to be able to travel through such beautiful parts of South Africa on wheels, and this last day was a fantastic way to end the bike-riding journey. 


Although a lot of us are feeling extremely tired and exhausted at the moment, it is nothing compared to the hardship that some families in the local townships have been through. The day after we finished the bike ride we went to visit the Red Cross Hospital where the child burn victims are treated, this was such a humbling experience and something truly life changing. Look out for it on the next blog post!

WE MADE IT!!!! 

2 comments:

  1. Well done PhoenixFlyers!! What a great effort!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow! Congrats! Enjoyed reading this blog.

    ReplyDelete