South Africa - The Lions on the Road: Cycling London to Cape Town - page 296

So I walked over and in the remaining daylight, I just hopped back and forth across it like
Homer Simpson did between the US Embassy and Australia. Now I'm in South Africa.
Now I'm in Lesotho. South Africa. Lesotho. South…then I got bored and went over to sit
with the others to just gaze at the millions of stars.
We woke up very early the next morning to catch the sunrise. Due to the low tem-
peratures, our tents were layered in frost. I had to put on several layers of clothing before
I walked across the plateau to its eastern edge. Just as I arrived, the sun revealed itself. It
was perhaps the most awe-inspiring thing I had ever seen. Because of the curvature of the
earth, it appeared that the sun rose from between the clouds and not at the horizon (I cap-
tured this in one of my photos.) We stayed until the sun completely broke the horizon and
then walked back to the tents to have breakfast.
Before breaking camp, we proceeded to the Crow's Nest at 3152m to take photos
and by 11:45a.m., we were on our way down. We paused a few times to visit a couple of
caves before eventually returning to the car park. We went to the Witsieshoek Mountain
Resort (the highest resort in South Africa at 2286 metres) for some beer and sarnies (sand-
wiches) and then proceeded to Bethlehem to visit some of Allan's friends. The drive back
toBloemfonteinwasfilledwithlaughter,yodelingandclappingalongwithAllan'scassette
tape. It was perhaps one of the greatest excursions I had and a welcomed change from cyc-
ling.
MylastweekendinBloemfonteinwasfilledwithmanysmalltripsespeciallytosay
good bye to the friends that I made. Some of the highlights included an interview with the
SentralHighSchoolnewspaper(inlieuofpresentingthereIguess)andwithDieVolksblad
(the Afrikaans newspaper in Bloemfontein).
I returned to Mr. Bike to collect my bicycle. Not only did Adri and Jan give the
bike a complete overhaul, they also gave me a parting gift: a signed cycling outfit with the
store's logo.
My final presentation in the city was for a young adults' group at Reinier's Meth-
odistChurch.ImetCarinforaquickchatandtosaygood-byeandthank-you.Shegaveme
a little memento that I carried with me (and still have) and some baked goods for the trip.
Michael and Allan came to the house to say good-bye and took me out for pizza. Finally, I
called Adelaide and wished her all the best. I ended the weekend with attending mass with
the Jazbecks.
I was to leave with mixed emotions. Bloemfontein will forever remain in my
memories and I promised myself that if I ever visited South Africa again, this city would
be one of my first destinations.
Leaving Bloemfontein