A River of Life — Stories from the road by Ruan Smit

the road ...

For nearly 500km I look at the end­less Namaqualand and Boesmanland as I slowly move across towards the Orange River and the spec­tac­u­lar Augrabies Waterfall. At points it feels like the land­scape is repeat­ing itself and that I’m stuck in a loop of the same piece of road as noth­ing seems to change. For a moment I think, South Africa changes every 100km or so. How can it pos­sibly be that this part is dif­fer­ent? And as I take a closer look, as I smell the air and feel the dirt run­ning through my fin­gers I real­ize I have not been look­ing, really look­ing ... Continued

Where love grows with flowers — stories from the road by Ruan Smit

Namakwa Flowers

For a while now I’ve been won­der­ing if the land­scape or space we live in has any effect on per­son­al­ity. Obviously it has to... But in Namakwa I found proof. There is a the­ory that the big­ger the pond is, the big­ger the fish will grow. Namakwa is like this. The vast open spaces, the bossies and sin­gu­lar trees of this area that proves its beauty but once a year has surely influ­enced the col­our­ful people that live here.

The per­son­al­it­ies you find here are big, strange even, but most def­in­itely won­der­ful. Every per­son­al­ity is char­ac­ter­ized by the many flowers that find its way up the dry earth between July and September. When you meet them at first like the land­scape you’re not entirely sure what to make of what you see. But give it some time and the area flowers ... Continued

There is a city… stories from the road by Ruan Smit

Cape Town ...

There’s a South African city that invites you in the moment you enter her atmo­sphere, she leads you into a space where a com­bin­a­tion of beauty, calm, buzz and his­tory makes you feel com­fort­able as if you have find home after a long hol­i­day. This city is home to many people, people that come from dif­fer­ent spheres of life. Some with ambi­tious dreams, some that seek inspir­a­tion from the love filled air, oth­ers come here to break away or to avoid a long cold winter.

This city provides a non judg­mental land­scape in which you can explore your ideas. She provides you with new ideas and helps you to col­lab­or­ate with other ideas. Her moun­tains, sun, wind, rain, trees and build­ings form a per­fect whole where many find a safe haven under­neath her sky. Continued

A novice cyclists impression of the second windiest Argus Cycle Tour ever ...

Argus Cycle Tour

Today I’m sun­burnt, sand blown, still a little bit wind swept and pos­sibly still have a saddle imprint on my rear end because yes­ter­day I took part in my first ever Pick n Pay Argus Cycle Tour!

The 33^rd event in Cape Town got off to a fault­less start, with cyc­ling great Lance Armstrong among the elite riders who star­ted on their 110km jour­ney just after 6am.  Not being quite as elite, my fam­ily star­ted at 09.21, in batch OA.  As this was my first ‘tour’ I was very impressed with the incred­ibly effi­cient start­ing oper­a­tion – it can’t be easy man­oeuv­ring 35,000 odd riders but the organ­ising staff has it down to a fine art. Continued

A Gonubie affair — Stories from the road by Ruan Smit

Honestly, before I ended up in Gonubie dur­ing this cycle tour I was never aware of its exist­ence… let alone that I would be forever smil­ing after this extraordin­ary visit.  The first of the three whoop whoop girls I meet is Maureen, I’m stay­ing over at her B&B called Porkys. Funny how I ended up here, Michelle who I wrote about in my pre­vi­ous art­icle referred me and from there another story starts.

Porky was Maureen’s nick­name since school because she used to be chubby, she smiles. And every­one still knows her by this name so it was the obvi­ous choice. No pretences…

Her energy is con­ta­gious as she helps me get my cycle into her car. And from here on in she never stops bub­bling. She is abso­lutely proud of the fact that she’s the first cyc­list I’m stay­ing with. Continued

Give a Soccer Ball ...

Give a Soccer Ball ...

Now before you skim right past this, we’re not ask­ing for a lot … just a soc­cer ball or two for the young­sters in the Transkei. That’s a R45 dona­tion to put a smile onto the face of a young soccer-wannabe ...

We’ve been fol­low­ing Ruan’s epic jour­ney across South Africa and this week he’s in the Transkei on the Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape. Yesterday he came across a group of boys play­ing soc­cer in the vil­lage of Lusikisiki and star­ted talk­ing with one of the boys who told him about his dreams of being a soc­cer player. These kids don't have real balls to play with, so ... they make their own soc­cer balls from melted plastic. These "balls" are obvi­ously not really round, you can’t fill them with air or even really kick them because they are filled with plastic. Nonetheless, they play enthu­si­ast­ic­ally with these balls and con­tinue to dream ... dreams of grow­ing up to play the beau­ti­ful game for their beau­ti­ful Country! Continued

Not another high tea — stories from the road by Ruan Smit

From the road ...

Most people I meet are people I go look­ing for or find on my travels, but Michelle found me. On the R61 from Margate I start my day cyc­ling towards the little town of Port St Johns. I don’t have a clue what the road is like or what I’ll find in any of the towns along the way. Half nervous I set off into the unknown.

40km later I reach the little town of Port Edward, I am com­pletely drenched by the rain that has in true coastal fash­ion washed me until even my bones are wet. I long for a steam­ing cup of cof­fee and some­thing to eat. Anything that would help heat up my freez­ing body. I’m in luck. From nowhere a little pan­cake shop appears in the middle of a banana plant­a­tion. I stop ... Continued

Rashid had R30 — Stories from Explore SA Cycle Tour

The road between Badplaas and Amsterdam in Mpumalanga is an unfor­giv­ing one. One that never really allows you to relax. At every bend there is some­thing to pho­to­graph or someone to greet. At every junc­tion you need to make sure that you’re tak­ing it all in. But this road also doesn’t have one single stop for 140km. With the sun mak­ing my skin ache and hints of cloud shy­ing away from the swel­ter­ing heat I cycle on look­ing for some place to fill my water bottles, a place that can provide me with some shade and maybe even the com­pany of a few birds ... Continued

She’s no Barberton Daisy ...

Barberton

When I see the turnoff for Barberton / Badplaas my heart sinks for a moment. I des­per­ately wanted to see this town that I’ve heard so much about, but a 20km detour in this heat on my bike seems like a lot to ask. Too many thoughts wash through my tired mind. I want to see this town. I’m only doing this jour­ney once. Lets take the risk and hope this town is as great as every­body says it is…

I didn’t make the wrong choice. Continued

A human wallflower — from the road, by Ruan Smit

Simon & Friends

I’m usu­ally inspired by people. Landscape often inspires me but it is those people that I meet within that land­scape that helps form the land­scape. Magoebaskloof inspired me, I became a wallflower.

I sit in Haenertsburg at the foot of Magoebaskloof in Limpopo province. It is Simon’s birth­day but I don’t know him. He is cel­eb­rat­ing with his fam­ily whilst try­ing to get as much food in his mouth as his nine year old mouth would allow. Simon’s fam­ily is tak­ing pho­to­graphs of this occa­sion but he is not inter­ested in their memor­ies. On the deck of this quaint little res­taur­ant in a town that has been left in a dif­fer­ent cen­tury my head floats from the pic­ture of Simon to what I am about to see ... Continued

Where is Ruan? Join us as we follow him on his "Explore SA" cycle tour

On Saturday 13^th Ruan Smit began his cycle jour­ney around South Africa. We've had a short update from Ruan about his first 2 days. Starting off in Limpopo, on Saturday he was in Bela Bela, on Sunday he was in Polokwane. He's made new friends along the way, stayed with wel­com­ing fam­il­ies, been shown around Polokwane (the cap­ital of Limpopo) and been takento see the all-new Peter Mokaba Stadium. Here's what Ruan had to say in his mail to us last night:

"Obviously when you set out to do some­thing you have a cer­tain idea of how it will pan out. Well, I had such a vis­ion. And believe me within hours I was star­ing at a whole dif­fer­ent pic­ture, and hon­estly, I like this one better.

Saturday must have been the hot­test day of the year. At one point the ther­mo­meter reached a blis­ter­ing 40 degree celsius and believe me, 6 hours in this heat whilst cyc­ling gives you a new idea on heat, road and people ... Continued

Scraps of Hope — Pre cycle-tour Free State visit

Scraps of Hope

You may recall lasts weeks post about Ruan Smit — the enter­pris­ing young cyc­list who sets off on his "Explore South Africa Cycle Tour" on the 13^th February. (see the art­icle here — Collecting people's stor­ies — cyc­ling 9000km in 70 days). Ruan will be send­ing us weekly snip­pets and stor­ies abut his exper­i­ences on the road dur­ing his tour to share with our read­ers — and here is the first. Says Ruan — "I'm spend­ing some time in the Free State, doing some train­ing and try­ing to get to some other towns — and wrote this art­icle for you ..."

"I’m in Ficksburg today, and I could tell you how beau­ti­ful the morn­ings are, that it’s at the foot of the Drakensberg, that before the rain falls there’s usu­ally a sand­storm that pre­cedes it. I could tell you that it’s the cherry cap­ital of South Africa and that the sun shines a blis­ter­ing silence dur­ing the day. But all these things you will prob­ably find if you Google "Ficksburg" ... Continued

Collecting people's stories – Cycling 9000km in 70 days

Ruan Smit

On the 13 February 2010 Ruan Smit intends begin­ning his epic cycle jour­ney around South Africa. His jour­ney across the face of our cul­tur­ally diverse coun­try is not about beat­ing a gruelling time, or break­ing a record. Rather it is a social exper­i­ence. Along the 9 000 kilo­metre route, Ruan intends col­lect­ing stor­ies about the people he meets. On his aver­age 150 kilo­metre day, he will stop to chat to the people of South Africa, to enjoy food with them, and sleep in their sur­round­ings ... Continued