Good Friends. Good Hope.

100km. Cape Town to Simon's Town.

Today, on the 33rd celebration of the day of my birth, I feel that I finally finished what I started when I came here to Africa. Cairo is home of the pyramids and steeped in history and it is the place at which most people start their trans-continental journey; however, I chose to start in Alexandria on account of its coastal geography and its historical significance. Likewise, Cape Town is a lovely city and the ending point for most voyageurs; however, the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point seemed a more worthy end of the road for me. And it is a shame that all of the riders couldn't experience it because today's ride was beautiful.

It was an extraordinarily scenic 75km along the coast to reach Cape Point. I was privileged to have Paul, Kim, Dennis and Carrie join me for the occasion. NoHomo and Carrie's sister, Penny, rode support. From the lookout point at the end of the road, we celebrated with cake and champagne. And then Adele, Kim, Mathias and Christiano showed up (coincidentally) and joined the celebration.

Mindful that there sunlight would not last forever (and neither would the cake or champagne), we eventually began our preparation to return to Cape Town. First, we had to make our way out on the hiking path for a final view. We figured that we could do this quickly with our bikes; just a short hike-a-bike over some stairs and then we would roll down the path in no time. The catch was that the path turned out to be almost entirely unrideable (at least on road bikes and after champagne). So we carried our bikes the entire way out and the entire way down the path. Let's just say that it was an adventure.

We managed to ride out of the park just as the sun was setting.

We weren't sure how far we would make it before everything was dark, so we pedalled like crazy once we were back on the highway. There was just enough light to make it to Simons Town and to see a lot of penguins along the way. From Simon's Town, we caught the train back to Cape Town because none of us had lights or reflectors. What a birthday!