I wrote this short piece on 14th March 2010, as I stood poised on the brink of a great adventure - no really - I was about to embark on what was for me an epic adventure. I was so looking forward to the freedom I would find in travelling only in one direction. Let me explain in my words from 2010...

I have been training for the past 6 months (about) for a 3-week long solo cycle tour across the length of our country, north to south. From the border with Zimbabwe, along the national N1 highway route, all the way to Cape Town. About 2000kms!

You see, I have always had this romance with the road. That place where in the distance parallel lines meet at some point on the horizon that calls my name. Many times in my life I have been inexplicably drawn to the road, sometimes giving in, other times fighting it off and knuckling down to a responsible life. But now at 45 I look to quench this ache for good. Well, actually I have the opportunity to combine this with a bit of local publicity for a cause I am involved in – working with the homeless children and trying to make people aware of their plight. So, the point is, I have had plenty of time alone on the road to think about things over the past months, and this is one of them.

Most of my training has been along “there-an-back” routes on safe local roads well-suited to cycling. The problem with is, is that every downhill is an uphill on the return journey. Every respite has a consequential battle for balance. After a few months of this I was beginning to really not enjoy my downhills. It was almost as if they mocked me as I sped easily down them, resting as I went. They called out goads and threats warning of the return journey. As I trained, every week I began to look more and more forward to the day I could take on the final one-way journey, with no threat of recrimination with every easy ride.

With this, life’s parallel reality dawned on me. We endure uphills and sometimes get the chance for an easy free-wheel. But in life, no single step should ever be repeated. Unless we insist on going back, that is. Then every easy ride will have its retribution upon us and every uphill will become and endless struggle against often unseen forces.

I realised the great freedom we have in committing to a one-way journey, knowing that with every uphill we build strength and endurance, and every downhill is blessing, a chance to briefly free-wheel. I am so pleased, overjoyed, that finally my one-way journey can start. In fact a week from today I will be starting, my training finished and only final preparations to be done.

I hope this makes sense... it certainly does to me. Perhaps ask a cyclist?

Now, as 2021 draws to an end, and as it has been for many years now, I find myself spending this season largely alone and with my own thoughts, I am preparing for what I call my #lastchapter , a final one-way journey. Fortunately, I have had much fortitude built into my life over the past twelve years, and I look forward to this. As excited as I was in March 2010 for that epic journey!

26 December 2021