The final blog entry. Some final thoughts.

We have been back in England for five days now and the weather has thankfully started to warm up. It doesn't feel like over 16 months ago that two fledgling cyclists wobbled their heavily laden bikes out of my father's drive in Norfolk. Using the theory that we would get fitter as we progressed, we made our way through Europe and to be quite honest, much further than I ever expected!

Slowly over time, the line between 'travellers who happen to be on bikes' and hardened cycle tourists has become increasingly blurred. Cycling has certainly afforded us opportunities that would have been difficult to experience any other way.

During our time in the saddle we have had, as you can imagine, plenty of time to muse over the pros and cons of travelling by bike. At times it is hard to imagine a better way to travel. Riding along exchanging greetings with friendly locals, through beautiful scenery on a warm day takes quite some beating. Stopping to chat, often through sign language, or accepting a generous offer of a drink and occasionally food from people frequently less monetarily wealthy than ourselves, is both humbling and heart warming.

Occasionally though, some of the pros are also the cons. The very act of travelling so slowly means that you get to see all of the places in-between, which at times is brilliant. The con of course, is that travelling so slowly means that you also get to see all of the bits in-between that would probably be best avoided. There have certainly been times when we would have loved to have been able to skip ahead to the next big town or city. Normally when we were short of water/food, which was often, or passing through a less than friendly area. In truth security, other than in one previously documented case, has not been a problem.

At very few points during our trip have we ever felt unsafe. Contrary to how the region is often portrayed in the media and to the surprise of many, this is especially true of the Middle East. Watching the news now and seeing the terrible situation unfolding in Syria leaves us deeply saddened. We have so many fantastic memories from our time there and hope that some kind of resolution is reached soon. It is a beautiful country, full of friendly hospitable people, we can only hope it remains so.

I had originally contemplated writing a long list of names of people, who have gone beyond the call of duty to make our journey so memorable. In truth there have been so many, that I still find it quite overwhelming. We know of course, that many of those people who offered us food, water, tea, accommodation or even just an encouraging word, will have no means of reading this. We can only say that our lives have truly been enriched by your selfless actions.

To those that will be reading this, we offer once more our heartfelt thanks, With luck we will see some of you again, either in your home countries or in ours. Just don't all come at once as most British houses aren't very big and at the moment we don't even have one!

When we started this trip the plan was to have an adventure, one that we would remember for the rest of our lives. It has certainly been that and more. There have been times when we could easily have given up and it certainly hasn't always been easy. But I am proud to say that we made it and probably more importantly, that we made it in one piece.

To everyone that has followed our blog, we hope that you enjoyed reading it. At some point there will probably be another trip, whether it will be on bicycles, only time will tell.

For now though we offer a big thank you and goodbye from Matt, Debs and an older and even less fuzzy Toad.

Day 459 – 465 South Africa 05/02/2012 - 11/02/2012, Cape Town – Norfolk, UK. Sightseeing, packing our gear, a final farewell and a chilly homecoming!

Big Blue Backpackers excelled themselves this morning on our checking out day. The guy on reception could clearly see we were still carrying our luggage down the stairs, when he rudely demanded that he would need our room key back. I am trying to find some redeeming feature of staying there, but none spring readily to mind. It fortunately hasn't soured our Cape Town experience too much, mainly because we managed to be out all day!

Without even a goodbye from the hostel staff, we set off towards the V&A waterfront to take another photo. This time, with a cloud-free sky, we were able get a picture of us, the bikes and Table Mountain in all its glory.

Task completed, we went for a celebratory coffee and then headed off towards Rondebosch. Being Sunday, the traffic was light and aside from the traffic lights all being against us, we made it trouble free to Ron and Jo's house.

It has been lovely to finish our time in South Africa staying with another great family. Ron and Jo's son Matthew has been visiting from America and he has kindly ran us around the sights of Cape Town.

Of the sights, we have visited the Kirstenbosch botanical gardens, Groot Constantia and Steenberg wine estates and eventually when the weather finally cleared, Table Mountain. The cable car may be something of a rip-off, but it did save Debbie's limbs and the views from the top were spectacular.

Thanks to our guide Matthew, we walked to Maclear's Beacon, the highest point, and had an enjoyable stroll through the interesting flora. To anyone planning on going to Table Mountain, follow the advice that we were given: if the weather is clear, drop everything and go up. In our last six days in Cape Town there was only one clear day on the mountain, which was thankfully the day we went up.

Despite it being an awkward time to have visitors, as Ron and Jo's daughter was having a baby, we have been made to feel very welcome. We have enjoyed lovely meals and great hospitality. Running us around to get boxes for the bikes and then helpfully taking us to the airport when it was time to leave, has left us needing to offer our heartfelt thanks. Also we mustn't forget congratulations on the birth of your grandson Brett.

As is often the case, our last few days went very quickly, but we managed to catch up once more with George and Alice. It was sad that we didn't get to spend more time with them, but there is always another time. We certainly have plenty of reasons to come back to what has proven to be a fascinating and often beautiful country.

The end of what has been an epic journey soon came around and it was off to the airport. A two hour flight to Johannesburg on Kulula, the airline with a sense of humour, was followed by a lengthy wait at the airport.

Finally a ten hour flight with Virgin Atlantic has brought us and our bikes home to a very cold England. The 30°C temperature change is going to take some getting used to!

Day 456 South Africa 02/02/2012, Simon's Town – Big Blue backpacker's, Cape Town!!!! 30.94miles/50.23km, 3hr28minutes, Av8.9mph.

It felt quite strange this morning setting off knowing that, barring a brief ride across Cape Town, this would be our last proper journey in the saddle. No matter the conditions we were going to make it to the city today, but it was nice to be setting off in sunshine with a tailwind.

We dispatched the first hill of three with ease, Debs having given her injured limbs a good talking to, and headed down towards Chapman's Peak Drive. The drive is a famous, winding and narrow ocean road that hugs the cliff side for about 10km between Noordhoek and Hout Bay. It is also prone to being closed if the weather is too bad, which fortunately today it wasn't. Our ride into Cape Town wouldn't have been quite the same if we had had to take a detour.

The views along the road are pretty spectacular and not for the faint hearted, as the vertiginous sheer sides make for treacherous cycling; especially when the wind is buffeting you. An earlier sign may have declared the road conditions as good, but a strong south easterly being funnelled down by the mountains meant that it was tough going.

Upon reaching the peak, our proposed photo shoot was cut short by the strong winds. Debs refused to go too close to the edge for fear of being blown over!

Fortunately we found a sheltered spot later, as in a moment of terrific timing, we passed the 8000 mile mark!

Arriving in Hout Bay, we stopped for a well earned drink and then tackled what was to be our final hill of the day. From then on it was a straight ride along the coast to Cape Town.

Passing through the fashionable coastal suburbs of Camps Bay, Clifton and Bantry Bay, we continued to be buffeted by the wind; which we have since learnt is funnelled through the Twelve Apostles (17 peaks, so why 12 Apostles is anyone's guess) and onto the road. The coastal towns were all very attractive but sadly the Twelve Apostles were covered in cloud, as was, rather disappointingly, Table Mountain.

Following the beach road we arrived at the V & A waterfront and headed for the clock tower. After 16 months, 12,950km, 8000miles, 20 countries, varying landscapes, temperatures and cultures, not to mention more than a few beers, we had made it!

Even now I am still not sure how to feel about getting here. There have been times when we could easily have stopped and yet increasingly as we continued, there has been less and less doubt about actually making it.

Having found someone to take a photo of us, we sat down to a celebratory glass of wine. This was swiftly followed by another and then a cocktail and then when Debs' friend Russell arrived, a beer. The rest of our day, left us little time to reflect too much on our achievements, as having checked into our hostel; the, to put it frankly, pretty awful Big Blue Backpackers. We headed off with Russell for a tour of the city.

Our first stop was in the suburb of Milnerton for a view of Table Mountain. The weather had changed little since earlier, so the beach was very wind swept and the mountain was still covered by cloud.

Next we went to Bloubergstrand where many of the postcard shots of Table Mountain and Cape Town are taken from. Instead of looking at the still obscured mountain, we watched the many kite surfers risking their limbs in the strong winds and shark infested waters. Despite staying for a couple of beers, we didn't see anyone eaten so perhaps the waters aren't as shark infested as we were told. Russell did mention that there had been a few incidents in this area in the past though. Sailing through the air on a kite board and coming down on top of a shark, must be pretty traumatic for both the surfer and the shark!

Leaving the beach behind, we stopped for some dinner before heading to Russell's apartment for some more drinks. It was two very tired people that arrived back at the hostel just before midnight. It has been a brilliant, but very long day. We owe a big thanks to Russell for making our arrival in Cape Town so memorable.

We have the next week ahead of us to get everything ready for journey home. For now though, good night all and thanks for all the support.