South Africa - The Lions on the Road: Cycling London to Cape Town - page 288

I left the church and cycled to two media interviews in Welkom, a town northwest
of Virginia. The first interview was with the town's newspaper, Vista. The second was at
Welkom's radio station. It was on the way back to the house that I decided how I was to
spend the rest of my time in South Africa. First and foremost, if any opportunity to public-
allyspeakarose,Iwouldneverturnitdownnomatterhowsmalltheaudiencewas.Ididn't
care if it was a school, a club, a prayer group, a Girl Guides meeting, a company event
or a media interview. Second, my message would be the same: just get involved. Third, I
stopped focussing on the kilometres and my cycling itinerary for they didn't matter any-
more. Hence from Virginia onwards, I played it by ear on how long to stay in any one spot
and trusted myself when I felt it was time to leave. (I actually spent 6 months in South
Africa in what should have been only a 3-4 week cycle!) Looking back, I really had to
thank Jenny McArdle for starting me off on this paradigm shift.
ThenextdayIwenttoMineShaft#4attheVirginiaGoldMine.Imetthemanager,
BobAtkinson.Hemadethearrangementsformetovisitwhichincludedsigningalotofpa-
perwork(waivers)justincase.Iwaswhiskedawaytopreparetogounderground.Idressed
in coveralls, a hardhat and boots and went 1.2 kilometres below the surface.
I was surprised on how hot it was down there. There was an ethnic mix of workers
astheydrilledholestoplacethisputty-lookingexplosiveinside.Wereturnedtothesurface
and when everyone was accounted for, they detonated the explosives.
Ithenwenttoseethepouringofthemoltengoldintobricks.Iworespecial goggles
for this and then was given a gold brick as a souvenir…not. Afterwards, I was given a tour
of the workers' facilities and ate lunch with them in their canteen. I must admit that the
facilities were impressive and quite clean.
The next day, I cycled to Belinda's school and gave a talk to the Standard 9 class. It
wentquitewellandtheteachertoldmethatsheneverhadherclasssoquite.Icycledhome
and prepared to be the guest speaker at the Rotary Club. The topics included experiences
from my tour, the work of STC, and a reiteration of the importance of getting involved.