The Mail & Guardian‘s Kevin Davie is expected to finish his epic off-road ride across South Africa on Saturday, exactly 30 days — and 3 500km — since he set out from the Beitbridge border post with Zimbabwe on April 1.
Speaking to the M&G on Friday, about 10km from Blouberg, Davie said he only had to navigate until reaching to the town, and would then just “follow the drag”.
“Basically, it’s over,” he said. “The last couple of days I’ve been focused on finishing. It’s kind of relentless.”
For much of journey, which he dubbed the Ganna, Davie would get up an hour before daylight and get on his bike at first light.
“I haven’t had breakfast where I’ve slept for a month … then you go the whole day.
“There’s no sense of rationing your food. You eat to stay warm and for energy. You’ve got to get it into you.”
‘Dream come true’
He recounted how he had to face a ride of about 60km to the nearest shop in Ceres this week in search of breakfast. About 30km short of Ceres, his energy levels plummeted. He was sitting on the side of the road, and “a car stops and it was this guy who was doing the Freedom Challenge [cycle race], who was also following me online. He was with his family and had come to see the snow. They had rusks, chocolates, apples and bananas. They made me hot chocolate. I stuffed myself … it was a dream come true.”
On another occasion he had stopped at a Spar supermarket and bought a Coke, a sparkling water, a chicken pie, three Bar Ones, a couple of Chomps, chips, Jube jubes and dried fruit.
“You can’t believe how you can eat.”
His bike has held up well, despite not “having all the gears”.
He has also had a couple of what he termed “tyre issues”.
Davies’s wife, Lucille, and his son, Dillon, are to meet him at Cape Point on Saturday.
After the ride, he said he was “basically going to stop moving. I’ll also feel liberated by not having to get up at four or five the next morning and cycle 120km.”
Follow Kevin’s journey at mg.co.za/ganna or on Twitter at @gannaride