Teresa Coetzee is a lifestyle journalist for the Afrikaans newspaper Beeld and is currently taking part in the Old Mutual joBerg2c mountain bike race. She shares her experiences with us after the ninth day of the event.
Photo: Kelvin Trautman
When we started this morning just after seven at the Jolivet tented village near Highflats in KwaZulu-Natal, many mixed emotions were going through my mind.
On the one hand I was excited that we were going to Scottburgh, our final destination in this year’s Old Mutual joBerg2c and, on the other, I was a little sad that this amazing experience and journey was drawing to a close.
Last Friday, when we started in Heidelberg just outside Johannesburg, suddenly seemed a lifetime away.
I remember that I secretly thought nine days on a bike would be insanely long. But now my body was so used to riding, I possibly could have done a few more stages.
Today’s distance was nice and short, a mere 84km with 854m of climbing and almost double that in downhills. In other words, it was really the cherry on the cake!
What I remember of today were those amazing sugarcane fields which we travelled through for kilometres on end. It’s as if KZN tried to make a final impression on us – we’ve been through mealie fields, cabbage lands, bushveld and all that was missing was sugarcane.
Most riders were in a hurry today, but Lulu and I decided beforehand that we were going to take it easy and get the most out of the day for old time’s sake.
Yet we came quickly to that famous and feared floating bridge at the lake in Scottburgh and because there was a bit of a bottleneck we had to get off our bikes and got to see a whole bunch of riders falling in!
And, before we realised, we were on the beach and across the finish line: the end of a nine-day journey.
The atmosphere was palpable in Scottburgh as riders congratulated each other exchanged war stories for one last time. We received our finishers’ T-shirts and proudly put them on right there.
After the last riders finished, all the participants (and organisers) stormed into the ocean for the traditional end-of-race swim. It was a sight to behold.
My Old Mutual joBerg2c experience has filled me with so many emotions over the past nine days. At first, I was a bit apprehensive about what lay ahead and, at times, totally overwhelmed by the breathtaking beauty around me.
Today I felt proud that I persevered for nine days and that my body was capable of something like this.
But, most of all, I was grateful.
Not only because we live in such a wonderful country with such amazing people. And not only because there are people with the vision and understanding to organise an event like the joBerg2c.
I was mostly thankful for the opportunity to be part of such an incredibly special journey.
Click here to read Teresa’s blog after day eight.
