Losing the plot

This might seem a bit arb to those with a sense of direction, but i'm currently sitting in Nelspruit. Met up with my parents in Swaziland who brought the new bike, Specialized Carve, seems solid. In a good way. Even though i'm a bit of an anti 29er, when setting up the bike this afternoon was sort of wishing had it a thousand ks ago at the start of the heavy(ier) sand and corrugation. Maiden flight tomorrow!

Stayed over at Mkhaya game reserve in Swazi last night. Amazing time. Going to dentist tmrw, pratley puttey was excellent for fixing bike frame, saddle, bag, random small stuffs, waterproofing wounds etc but couldn't quite get myself to use it to replace the filling. (Although in my mind tye whole procedure has already been worked out, and when my body is dug up a thousand years from now they'll remark on how strong our molars were). Or how tough the food must have been.

In any case. Heading back to swazi tomorrow and then out to SA. No way going back to where was picked up, would have to stick on tar roads till border so might skip a section but thats fine by me. Smokkel route that was part of plan through Lebombo mountains is bit out of question with the parentals in a very inconspicious black Landy behind me.

Even though the new bike has eyelets for a pannier, the one i've been using has been so modified that it is pretty much custom built to the bike. So going to chicken out and las the other bag in the car the last 400km to durban. Would have happened with freedom in any case so doesn't seem like cheating too much. Although first prize would have been to cycle out till Durban with the old (sadly broken) rusty steed. Freewheelbody and bearings was so bad last 20km everything was slipping, almost resorted to cableties, fixing casette to spokes. With some very smooth pedalling luckily this was avoided. Although the 13km pass was interesting, especially after a 1000km of flat riding.

Time for bed, and almost riding again!