THIS TOURISM WEEK Number 68 - Wednesday 6 June, 2007

Here’s a great piece of writing I know you’ll enjoy. Tourism needs this kind of thinking!

 Talking Point: The Tourism Cycle…

By Niki Moore www.travelnewsnow.co.za 31 May 2007

Reproduced with permission  

When my uncle Louis finished his matric at Helpmekaar Hoërskool, he and his older brother Andries decided to cycle to Cape Town. They set off early one Johannesburg dawn on their old upright bicycles, carrying some money and a small rucksack, and arrived several weeks later in the Mother City. As uncle Louis said - whenever he would regale us of his adventures - at the end of that trip the two of them were so tough they could have had a comfortable night’s sleep on a wash line.

            According to Louis, the road they followed - which would become the N1 - was mostly gravel. There were 56 farm gates to open and close. They slept in barns, washed in rivers, detoured when the fancy took them, and earned their food and lodging along the way by doing odd bits of labour for passing farmers.

            This was in 1914. Louis was 16 and his brother 18. I get tears in my eyes when I think of this exploit, mainly at the thought of sitting on a hard saddle through the entire Free State. But, having done my fair few hours of cycling, I can absolutely understand the sense of freedom and achievement that can be earned by freewheeling through the countryside.

            Nowadays, of course, the roads are tarred; there are guesthouses along the way; you can eat at roadside stalls and restaurants. And the bicycles themselves have been aerodynamicked almost out of existence.

            But the principle remains the same – pedal power along a sun-drenched road, past fields of nodding sunflowers, through tawny kloofs and down stupendous mountain passes.

            Which was why I was so taken with the adventure of an individual called Ray Chaplin, who has decided to cycle from Cape Town to Pretoria. Ray wants to a) promote non-motorised transport along with the Bicycling Empowerment Network and b) promote cycle touring in South Africa.

            The trip started in Cape Town on Friday 4th May. The first part followed the famous Route 62, the Other Wine Route that calls itself the scenic alternative to the N2 highway. It meanders from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth via Oudtshoorn, criss-crossing the Garden Route and taking in the mountain passes and valleys of the Little Karoo.

            It sounds mouth watering. To start off with, there are the wine cellars of the Cape, then the fruit sellers of the Klein Karoo and Langkloof, with even glimpses of the salt cellars: the sea.

            As of this morning, intrepid Ray was on his way to Queenstown, through the ice and snow, heading towards Bloemfontein.

            Ray keeps a blog www.thelifecycle.co.za, which – if you can get past some of the nauseating entries (he is obliged to mention his sponsors in every sentence, and spends far too much time ‘finding himself’) – makes inspirational reading. He has made a comfortable night in two police stations, beside the N2 highway and behind a farm stall. He has gone game spotting, petted apex predators and dived with crocodiles. He uses wonderful sponsored gear, all sorts of fancy electronics, and every bicycling knick-knack that opens and shuts. But despite the space-age equipment, Ray has done it the hard way: by camping, cycling in all weathers (even during the famous recent Freeze-Your-Toes-Off Cold Front); and travelling alone.

            I would like to suggest a more user-friendly alternative. Cycling tourism is great if you can set off on your bike with a group from your guest house, ride merrily along a sunny lane, push your bike up a gentle mountain pass so that you can freewheel down the other side into a lush valley of orchards and vineyards, stop for a breather under a huge yellow-wood tree and keep a look out for otters in the crystal-clear mountain streams. You will feel the sun on your back and the breeze in your face, secure in the knowledge that the tour company has taken your luggage to the next stop and is waiting round the corner with sandwiches and tea. If the weather is terrible, skip the cycle for a day of leisure or fit in some sightseeing to give the muscles time to iron out the kinks.

            I really do love bicycling, there is no better way to see the country - but only when the weather is good and the incline is gentle. This country, unfortunately, has some rather ferocious mountains that love to take bites out of unwary travellers.

            So what about it? Is there someone out there with a cycle-tour for cowards, or is cycle tourism in South Africa reserved for the type that likes to sleep on barbed wire?

            If I read Ray Chaplin’s writings aright, there is room to spare for both sorts. What I like most about his website is its positioning statement, a quote from adventure writer Jack London: ‘You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

Uncle Louis would have loved it.

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 …Have a Great Tourism Week! MARTIN HATCHUELBarefootWriter 

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