Interview with BBC World Service

My radio interview with Matthew Bannister of the BBC's World Service is available on podcast.  Click on the link below.  Download the Outlook programme and click on the edition of the 17th of Jan. It headlines a Burmese Girl Band, but I'm the middle of three interviews.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/outlook

Newsflash: Returning to Angola with Umkhonto weSizwe Veterans

Following last year's disappointments I’m very excited to be going back to Angola with a group including ex-Umkhonto weSizwe  (ANC’s former military wing)  soldiers.  I’ve been invited to join an expedition that will be driving from Johannesburg to Cuito Cuanavale to attend the opening of a war museum.

I feel very honoured to have been asked by ex-MK commander Patrick Ricketts to join this group.  This opportunity fits well with my aim of adding to the dialogue in South Africa about the effects of conscription and the legacies of the apartheid wars and what we can do as a society to heal the wounds from past conflicts.

I have found it fascinating talking to Patrick about his experiences in MK and I hope that being with this group will enable me to meet other ex-combatants from PLAN (SWAPO’s military wing), Cuba and, of course, Angola.

Joining this group simplifies my entry into Angola and will enable me to see parts of Southern Angola that would be inaccessible to me on the bicycle.

From Cuito Cuanavale I will cycle back to the Namibian border as originally planned.

We leave sometime in the middle of March.

African Cycling - Watch out for low flying buck...

After all the disappointment of the past week, I still love Africa.  There's always something unexpected, not to mention potentially dangerous, around the corner!

Out of time, out of luck: A postponement

Several factors have resulted in my decision to postpone the expedition until next year.  The most significant is that I have yet to receive an approved letter of invitation from Luanda.  With the Angolan Consulate closing at 11.30am on a Friday, I’m left with about a day and a half to get them to issue my visa.  That’s if the invitation letter arrives in my inbox in the next few minutes.  Given my last experience, even a neatly pressed pair of trousers is unlikely to hurry them up (for those who don’t know, I was refused entry to the consulate because I was wearing shorts!).

Perhaps it is fortunate that the visa issue takes the decision out of my hands.  The weather in Angola is rapidly turning to summer.  Temperatures are scraping 40 degrees and it won’t be long before the rains start.  My original plan was to go in September while the weather was still cool.  To land in Angola from a relatively cool South Africa and then to ride 70km’s a day or more in that heat would be a big ask for this old body.  Especially if I need energy to make a video and to write.

Finally, my knee injury resurfaced after Sunday’s training ride. 

I’m very disappointed.  April seems an awful long way off.  I’ve expended huge amounts of energy in organising and training.  My spare bedroom is littered with bike touring kit (sorry Jen!).

In the interim I’d like to do a long ride in South Africa.  I was going to try for Port Elizabeth to Cape Town via the Baviaanskloof and Route 62.  A distance of over 800 kms.  But good sense suggests that I wait for my knee to heal properly first.

I’m bouncing off the walls with energy to burn.  As soon as my knee is sorted out I’ll be on the road.  I’m looking forward to the opportunity of testing kit and myself.  A local ride will be more forgiving if something breaks, including me!  It will take some of the pressure off for when I do eventually hit the road in Angola.  And hopefully, it’ll take the edge off the disappointment I feel at not being able to go to Angola next week.

*An invitation:  If you feel like joining me for some of my SA ride let me know.  The company would be good!

Empty road, loaded bike

Solo is a lonely place

So here’s a question.  Should I blog when I’m frustrated by the bureaucratic labyrinth that I am navigating to get into Angola, or about the doubts and fears I feel most acutely when I lie awake waiting for sleep to come?  Or when this wretched, niggly knee injury keeps me off the bike for a week and counting?  Ok, so I just did.

I’m being reminded of the loneliness of a solo expedition.  There’s no support team, no partner, just me.  If I fail, it’s my failure alone.  No collective sharing of the disappointment, no-one to help justify a decision to push on against sensible advice, or to pull out, postpone, cancel or change plans.  Just me.  I have supporters, to be sure, people who believe in me and in what I’m doing.  But the journey is mine alone.  And I chose this path.

So to solve the various practical problems I’ve found a visa agent who specialises in Angola visas, and a physiotherapist to work my knee back to full working order. 

I’m aiming for 10 October as a start date.  Beyond this and the expedition is off.  The rains will start and the roads will become increasingly difficult to navigate.  The heat will become a serious factor.  I think I’m already pushing the timing envelope.

On a more positive note, I’ve found a great Portuguese teacher.  We meet in a bar in Melville and I learn how to order beer in Portuguese (and a few other useful words and phrases).  If only learning language at school had been this much fun!

A Note of Thanks

Thank you to Atlantic Philanthropies for their generous and necessary donation to my expedition fund.  Thanks also to Theresa Edlmann and Adele Kirsten for supporting this donation.  Theresa’s moral support and kindness has been of immeasurable value to me over the past months.

I would also like to thank Paul Weinberg, the freelance photographer and now Senior Curator at the UCT Visual Archives.  He was one of the first to point out the broader significance of what was at that point just me going for a long ride.  Paul’s ongoing support has helped rescue the expedition and has provided me with moral and technical support.

Of course, without the love and support of Jen, family and numerous good friends I’d still be day dreaming rather than moving on this project.  I’m deeply grateful to you all.