The End of Something

So. The TDA is done and dusted. After four months, it seems incredible to be in Cape Town.

A week after the race finished I am still adjusting. Only now am I starting to realise that it is over. 120 days might not seem like a long time in the scheme of things, but it is more than enough to be habit forming. Most of me still expects to be getting on the bike tomorrow. To have my food cooked by someone tomorrow. To be in a tent tomorrow. To be drinking a litre of thick, sweet coffee tomorrow. To be seeing all the TDA people tomorrow.

But its not going to be like that.

The strangest thing is how quickly the elation wears off. There was maybe five minutes at the final lunch where I realised that I was going to keep EFI - I didn't have to worry about keeping it anymore. After that EFI seemed like a pretty hollow achievement. I see the photos from the expedition riders and it seems like they experienced so much more of the tour than I did. Don't get me wrong though. I wouldn't have wanted to do the tour without trying for EFI and I would have been pretty disappointed to lose it through accident or by giving up.

Cape Town is a pretty nice place to be having TDA withdrawals. The Waterfront has everything that you could need. This is me enjoying (and destroying) a platter for two at a German restaurant.

I look pretty healthy in this photo. Turns out that I am pretty weak though. Tabata Protocol at the gym nearly killed me and I can't lift anything to save my life.

Not having a protective layer of blubber means that I started to feel the cold a lot. Even though I am not super skinny like I was in the depths of sickess (85kg). On the first day in South Africa it was bitterly cold and I had no warm gear with me at all. Luckily, we stopped in a petrol station / cafe / supermarket / crystal shop / second hand emporium. I found a riding coat perfectly suited to cycling long distances.

Lightweight, waterproof, fashionable. All these things are hard to find in a second hand coat. I am also wearing a loaner helmet. I couldn't find my helmet at the start of the day. I have a system that means that my helmet should always be on my head or in my locker. On the rest day before this, I went for a ride to find some money then lost my helmet. Turns out that I just carefully packed it in my spares bag. The system broke down.

Final picture. Me after having jumped out of a perfectly good (well pretty banged up really) plane. Strangely, not nearly as scary as going up a ladder.