Arriving in Hoedspruit
- Kenya2Kruger
- Jul 29, 2019
- 4 min read
19 July, Friday: Gravelotte -> Hoedspruit
It was so nice to wake up to warm weather, we could actually get out the bed and go outside the room without a jersey on - it was lovely!! I was awake early bouncing with excitement as we going into Hoedspruit today! It feels so unreal that its all coming to end and its gone by so quickly. I managed to convince Lily to join us so by 9 am we were at the petrol station where we Met Greg Gibbs. Greg is a highschool teacher at Southern Cross and is a passionate cyclist, running the schools cycling club. Greg also brought the schools top cyclist, Dino, who is in gr11 and cyles competitively and Greg had arranged that the rest of the school's cycle team to meet us at Three Bridges. Greg was my teacher when I was at Southern Cross so it was quite special that he made the effort to finish off the last leg with us.
And off we went...myself, Chris, Tim (Dad), Lily, Greg and Dino, heading for Hoedspruit. The sun was beating down on us warmly, pushing beads of sweat as we peddled along. Ocassionally a slight breeze would cool us down. The rode was quite narrow but not too busy and we had Mom (Kathryn) with her hazzards on right behind us. It was such an amazing feeling cycling past all these familiar farms and fences on the sides of the road. We passed a place called Boulders Camp which is a beautiful property with massive rock boulders and I immidiately felt like I was coming home. We were all looking out for road signs showing when the kilometres to Hoedspruit but we never passed one - obviously Hoedies has'nt quite made the cut for Road and Transport Department yet :/
As we went past Samy's petrol station we had Jesse Rae and Fritz in the car hooting and waving us by already. My eyes were already starting to tear up and then we cycled over a little hill and began crossing the Olifants River bridge, giving me a very weird, anxious, excited, strange feeling in my stomach and my heart. As we crossed the bridge we cycled into the Three Bridges Restaurant and there were a group of about 15 people cheering us on, clapping for us, welcoming us back home. My heart just filled with joy and I was so emotional. Pippa had organized a few cyclists to ride the last 25 km with us into Hoedspruit and Craig and Maja who own the restaurant as well as Sleepers Restaurant had prepared milkshakes and pizzas as snacks for us. Lynn Mac, another old school teacher from Southern Cross had come especially to Hoedspruit to finish with us and was busy selling chicken feet with painted toe nails to raise money for our rhinos. I then had to get one for my bike!! I was so overwhelmed by the people who had all made such an effort to coem and support us and it was so emotional to see how many local Hoedspruitians had been following our journey and supporting us, it was a very special moment for me.
We got back on our bikes to complete the next 25 km to Hoedspruit. It was a lovely ride, going up and down the undulating hills, passing all the game reserves and feeling the suns heat increasing. Next thing Debbie and Erick arrive dressed up in colourful wigs and lays, excitedly singing and encouraging us on. After about 10 km, my uncle John was there on the side of the road with his bike, waiting to finish off with us and then a further couple of kilometres there were some of my old friends waiting and more people from the community ready to cycle into Hoedspruit with us and of course there were then more tears and more excitement. Now with a peloton of about 30-35 people, maybe even more, we cycled into Hoedspruit, finishing at Sleepers where Craig and Maja had again arranged a few jugs of drinks for us all and MORE of our friends had been waiting for our arrival.
My moms staff were all there with whistles and vuvuzela's, dressed up, dancing and cheering as we cycled in and aunt Ninie and the family had painted a welcome back banner for us which was hanging up. Moms friends were there and Jess had bought us a bottle of champaign which we very happily popped. It was such a wonderful day, very emotional but so much fun and full of happiness and excitement. After a few drinks and having time to catch up with everyone, we headed home for the first time in 70 days. It was so great arriving home. Our garden of aloes were flowering and the impala lily's were in full bloom. My room was exactly how I had left it and just breathing in the smell of the bush was amazing. Not long after arriving back, having my first shower in MY OWN shower, did my very good friend Bee and her fiance Luan arrive, all the way from Jhb, they had come down especially to see us finishing. It was so exciting seeing Bee and catching up!
We then made our way to Swadini to register for the Rotary Kruger2Canyon Cycle that we doing tomorrow as our absolute final leg of the K2K. It was wonderful seeing the community and all our friends and Jess Williamson (a friend from school days) was also there! We had a lovely evening sharing stories and our adventures and experiences from the K2K trip. For tomorrow we are in peloton 5, the last one, and it worked out so nicely because Jess's boyfriend, Mat who we good friends with and her dad, Tony, who I've grown up with, are in our peloton as well as some of dads friends and some Blue Canyon Conservancy owners and we'll be lead by another family friend Ryan and my dad. This was quite special as my dad is the manager of Blue Canyon and runs the conservancies APU, which inspired our cycle tour and now tomorrow we are actually cycling through the reserve!! We landed up in the Sleepers bar afterwards having a few tequila's but we were in bed at a reasonable hour in prep for our last 100 km through the Kruger and into Swadini!!
Cycled: 65.14 km
Time: 3:10 hrs
Ave speed: 20.5 km/hr
Ascent: 491 m
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