You know you’ve been on tour too long when:
• Your cycling day is obsessed with where your next Coke stop is. –Kristen
• You always put something down on your chair to save it, no matter where you are. –Bonnie
• All your pockets have toilet paper in them. –Erika
• You’re thinking about where in your home you’re going to install a red box. –Harrison
• You only have 1 tent peg left. –Beryl
• You pick up a stray bra and know exactly who it belongs to. –Mel
• You take a hotel room and still pitch a tent in the middle of the room. –Jamie
• Someone offers a chocolate caramel nut PVM bar and you turn it down (because when they first became available, they were a big hit). –Mel
• You do the sniff test to determine your cleanest/dirtiest clothes, which also applies to your eating utensils, drinking utensils, and the pieces of toilet paper in your pocket. –Debbie
• You’re able to wear the same pair of socks 3 days (6 days for others) in a row, no problem. –Cindy
• Your glasses are held together by scotch tape in 2 places, and you’ve run out of duct tape. –Bruno
Things you’ll miss about the TDA experience:
• Eating a lot, all the time, and not thinking twice about it.
• Seeing a new countryside every day, meeting new people, and the simplicity of life. It’s fun to be on the road all the time. I have to go back and find a job and work all the time. You also get to eat a lot because you get a good workout every day and burn it off. –Kristen
• The lack of responsibility. Living moment by moment, not thinking of the past or future, taking things as they come, with no family problems or pressures. –Beryl & Bonnie
• Fanta –Harrison
• Coke. I’ve developed an addiction. (person wants to remain anonymous )
• No phone, no TV, little internet.
• The TDA staff.
• The cycling, everyday, with no other preoccupation than eating, drinking, and sleeping. The company of so many other crazy people, wanting nothing other than this very thing. –Bruno
• The powdered milk. I carry a can of milk with me, just in case I find a tea stop. In fact, I eat powdered milk plain, by the teaspoonful. –Mel (disgusting, Mel!)
• No need for me to shop, groceries or otherwise. I hate shopping. –Beryl
• The truck drivers. They’ve been great.
• Some of the people. You miss some of the people all the time, all of the people some of the time, but not all the people all the time. With some people, there’s been an amazing camaraderie. I’ll miss them. –Jamie
• The big pots of brewed coffee. –Cindy
• African sunsets.
• Someone who knows how to change a flat on my bike.
• Duncan
• Duncan’s melodious tones, calling the “rider meeting!”
• Not being married. –Jamie
• Cycling kilometers on end, without restriction. That sense of freedom in cycling, of the open road. How am I going to cycle at home?
• Being in a different place every day. You don’t get bored. If you’re in a crappy camp, it doesn’t matter, because you leave the next day. –Beryl
In some ways we are sick of pitching our tents, sleeping on the ground and sitting on the saddle, but the thought of ending our experience of cycling across the African continent is bittersweet. It is a sweet thought of returning home to creature comforts, old friends and family. The bitterness comes when thinking of leaving a life of having nothing to do but ride a bike. We can’t believe it, but tomorrow, we’re going to arrive in Cape Town! Wow!
