May 16 – Kicking Back in Cape Town

This is going to be a short posting, mostly just to let family and friends know I made it to CAPE TOWN!!!!!!

We cycled 60km yesterday morning to the most gorgeous beach in the world, outside of Cape Town, with a view of the city and Table Mountain. There we met the whole group, were greeted by media, took lots of pictures, and feasted on a fabulous lunch. Our final 30km were ridden together, in a convoy, into the city. And what a fabulously beautiful city Cape Town is!! The sun greeted us for the first time in days, the rain clouds went away, and we had a glorious finale at the Waterfront in Cape Town. Truly epic, unbelievable, surreal.

Eythan was there to greet me at the finish, which was awesome. We had a banquet last night. All of the men arrived with clean-shaven faces and the women had brushed hair. We were practically unrecognizable. In the 1 hour we had between the arrival ceremony and the banquet, we all ran to the mall. I bought a shirt, jeans, shoes, and a hair brush for the occasion–all within minutes.

Anyhow, I’m writing only a quick blog entry because, quite frankly, I’m truly at a loss for words. I’m exhausted, probably more mentally than physically, and I need some time to process all that I have seen and experienced over these past few days…and weeks…and months.

I will blog more, and promise to post some photos very soon, so if you are interested, please stay tuned. I will write more as I make sense of this all and come down from what feels like total euphoria and relief mixed with a little sadness. Honestly, I’m at a total loss of words, not really sure how I feel at the moment, other than pretty tired and emotional. I’m excited to have the next week and a half to relax and enjoy Cape Town with E before heading home.

I’ll write more soon.