Watch Out for the Baboons!

Saddle sore. Ostrich! Hurts. so. much. Gazelle! headwind. so. strong. Zebra! Can't. pedal. further. Baboon?

And so our journey has begun...

This is the beginning of a place where adversity and excitement are one in the same thing. A place where pain is unbearable, challenges push your physical and mental limits, but always, always there is a glimmer of something amazing that distracts you from your pain.

We have been riding for many days on dirt roads from Capetown, along the southwestern coast of South Africa. Between the incessant shaking from the corrugated roads and dust eating from the cars, we have glimpsed into the beautiful countryside of South Africa. It is a landscape of large open farmland like eastern Washington and Montana. But passing shantytowns, seeing all the strange animals and the funny signs that warn us of baboons remind us that we are in Africa.

Sometimes as I look out onto the farms, I am brought back to the plantations of colonial America. The fields are filled with black laborers working under the hot sun; the men in blue overalls, and the women with aprons and their heads wrapped in cloth. The roads are frequent with these people trying to hitchhike, perhaps back home to their families.

But the African people have surpassed our expectations. Everyone waves to us, honk their horns when they pass us, and give us plenty of encouragement to push on. There is no way to thank all the people enough who have voluntarily offered their homes and hospitality in just the past week. Like driving to the campground to give us breakfast. Or treating us to many many cups of coffee, and dinner. Giving us all five of us a roof over our heads. And even giving us a day long tour of the aloe factories, museums, game parks in Albertinia. All the pushing our bikes through sand, severe sunburns, rattling our brains out...it was all worth it to meet these people.

As we continue to busy ourselves with making projects from the trash off the side of road, until next time...minwah