Traveling light

For the trip to Heidelberg this weekend we decided to take Alica's car instead of taking my bakkie as we usually do. This meant a rethink of what I take along as her Clio really is tiny. With no useful boot space whatsoever.

As you can imagine I refused to leave the MTB at home, so I had to persuade Alicia that I'll make a plan.
With it being a hatchback I reckoned just pop the back seat down and put everything inside.

With it being a french car it took a while to figure out ho to get the back flat enough, but when that was done, it all came together. Put in all the bags (luckily Alicia travels really light when she wants to) and then remove the wheels and seat and put the MTB on top.

With the ease of getting everything inside, and the time I saved packing by not taking useless stuff along, I realised that I really take too much unnecessary stuff when I go away. Everything I needed for the weekend fit into my epic togbag. Easy as that. For our december road trip we filled the back of my bakkie between Alicia and myself, and packing and unpacking was a drag. None of that anymore.

We've already decided to ditch the bike rack when Werner and I drive up to Natal in May, so the long weekend at the end of April will be an opportunity to test ways of packing bikes and luggage as effectively and fuel efficient as possible.

With the bikes in the load bay and not on top, it will mean that I can't take the kitchen sink along again. Should make packing and unpacking a breeze. I can't wait.

Enjoy the short week.

Peace

Philip

Just riding along....jpg

Relief.life

Hi
This week I chatted with someone who used to be in our church about a NGO that he is working on. Relief.life.
Relief.life is a disaster relief group that started out with a mission that was sent to japan after the tsunami. They have also helped out in Sudan and Somalia, and locally they help in the townships after floods or fires.

In short he asked me whether we might want to ride Sani in Relief.life clothing in a way of increasing exposure for the organization. I would really like to have this happen. Using my love of cycling to help the group help other, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

For a closer look on Relief.life and their projects, go to www.relieflife.org or check out the video for their winter project: http://youtu.be/Y6WB3EXA3NU

I read a cool quote of George Clooney recently: "my heroes anyone who runs towards danger, not away from it. Not only military and firemen, but aid workers and journalists. Relief.life are these aid workers. They are the people who responded and helped out in langa after fires razed down shacks, taking peoples livelihood with it.


In the meantime I'm in Heidelberg with the lovely Alicia at her parents. I'm packing in the miles on the gravel roads around town. This morning I did a 2,5hr ride that included a monster climb up to the town dam. This climb took me 30mins to go up, 4mins to go down, and I maxed out at 83km/h. Needless to say that was super fun. Rest of the ride was very hilly. Heidelberg has like no flat roads. Tomorrow I'll skip the morning ride to go watch the Stormers game over breakfast in Witsand. I'm eating like a king, so will have to go jogging with Alicia to keep the weight in check. Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels going up a mountain. Well the running and some vomit intervals will help.

Enjoy the long weekend.

Peace
Philip