Freedom Challenge

I first heard about the freedom challenge in August. I was paging through the Mail & Guardian and stumbled across an article by a guy who had ridden the freedom challenge this year. The idea intrigued me - ride through some of South Africa's most beautiful scenery for close to a month. That evening I went online and looked up the freedom challenge website (http://www.freedomchallenge.org.za/) to get more info.

I think the thing that hooked me was the way in which the trail is setup. The route has been mapped out in such a way that every night you stay at booked accommodation. You don't have to take food or camping gear with you. A trip planner is available on the website listing all available accommodation and distances between stops. This allows you to decide how far you want to ride each day.

So I decided I'm doing it.

That was four months ago. In the time since then I've organised leave and put together a draft of my trip planner. Its going to be quite a doozy. 28 days of cycling 70km to 100km a day. The peak distance is 127kms. I'm also starting to procure gear. Bike upgrades, electronics (this is a great excuse to get a GPS device), and general camping and touring gear.

Obviously I also need to be in pretty good shape for that amount of riding, so if anyone is in the Western Cape region and wants to go for a ride in the local hills, feel free to drop me a line.