stornoway – Joburg2Kili

Our send off yesterday was absolutely amazing and we are so grateful for everyone that came to support us. Jeep kindly let us start our journey from their Fourways dealership where we were greeted by friends, family, sponsors and fellow cyclists who rode a portion of our first day with us. We were led out by ER24 and had a convoy of Jeeps follow us out the dealership which created an awesome atmosphere.

We then rode out past Lanseria Airport to Stornoway Lodge where they had setup a water/coffee stop for more of our supporters that came to wave us goodbye. After a short stop most of the cyclists that joined us left and then reality set in as there were just five cyclists left – the four Joburg2Kili cyclists plus a supporter, Deon Bester, who rode with us the whole way to ATKV Buffelspoort along with his wife, Sonja who followed in her car – thanks so much Deon & Sonja for the support!

The rest of the ride was quite tough as we had a fair amount of climbing until just past Harties where it flattened out. We had a quick stop off at the Steers on the N14 to get our energy levels back up and then rolled into camp mid-afternoon. Our total distance for our first day was 100.8km which took us 5hrs27 in ride time. We were all pretty exhausted from an awesome first day of our Joburg2KIli journey.

Thanks to ER24 for leading us out to Harties

This morning was quite a slow start to pack up but I think we will be pro’s at packing up camp in a few days time. We were very grateful to have Anthony and Giovanni from Qhubeka come through to see us off this morning which really gave us much needed motivation for a tough day on the bike.

The first half of the ride included 18km along a rutted dirt rode which was brutal on our bodies. We then hit the tar rode to Sun City and thought things could only get better but unfortunately the wind picked up making the last 50km of our ride really hard but thank goodness we had Racefood Farbars to keep our energy up. We were all very happy to roll into Bakgatla Resort in Pilansberg this afternoon which is where we are spending the night. Our total distance today was 86.58km which took us 5hrs34 in ride time so longer than yesterday due to the wind.

Tomorrow we off to Marakele which is a 93km ride – please help pray for no headwinds!

Thanks Qhubeka for coming to send us off today – Day 2

Drone pic of us taking a break on the dirt road – Day 2

It is with a mixture of excitement and nerves as we prepare to cycle out of Joburg for our 4,630km journey up to Kilimanjaro! Our departure date is Saturday the 30th of July and you are welcome to come send us off. There are 2 view points plus if you would like to cycle with us then you are more than welcome to!

Location 1: Jeep Fourways Dealership in Bryanston at 07:30 for 08:00

The Official Departure Venue for the start of Joburg2Kili is at the Jeep dealership on the corner of William Nicol and Hobart Road in Bryanston (click here for map). We will arrive there at 07:30 and will begin our long journey at 08:15. Jeep are one of the fantastic sponsors of Joburg2Kili so we’re thrilled that they’ve offered us their dealership as a start venue. Jeep will also kindly be offering coffees and light snacks.

Location 2: Stornoway Lodge (The Fat Olive Restaurant) in Lanseria at 09:30 – 10:15

Our Day 1 route takes us from Bryanston, through Cedar Road in Fourways, past Lanseria airport beyond Harties and to Buffelspoort. Just 3.3km after the Lanseria Airport road on the right hand side is Stornoway Lodge (Home of the Fat Olive Restaurant (click here for map). The owners kindly supported Qhubeka through our fund raising and now they’ve offered to host a view point for us on Saturday the 30th of July.

We expect to cycle past the entrance of Stornoway at approximately 09:45 and we will stop at the entrance for about 15 minutes to chat to our friends who are there before we carry on Northbound to Kilimanjaro. The Fat Olive Restaurant will have coffee and snacks on offer at the entrance plus they’ll be offering our supporters discounted meals in their wonderful restaurant.

Tip 1: View our Live Tracking page to watch our progress as we cycle and to see how close we are to Stornoway Lodge.

Tip 2: If you plan to be at both Jeep and Stornoway then once we leave Jeep you can drive ahead to have a great breakfast at the Fat Olive at Stornoway before we cycle past there.

Are you keen to cycle with us?

*All cyclists will be given free #Joburg2Kili arm warmers!

We have a number of friends who’ve asked to cycle a portion of our Day 1 route with us and, yes, everyone is more then welcome to come ride with us! The more the merrier! The awesome guys at ER24 are going to be leading us out and we’ll have a trail of Jeep Wranglers on our tail so we’ll be super safe.

The distance from Jeep to Stornoway is 24km and we’ll be riding at an average of 18km/h (yes these Qhubeka’s are not fast or easy to ride!!!). You can ride there and back or get someone to meet you at Stornoway for breaky and a lift home.

For those looking for a longer ride you are more than welcome to cycle with us the whole distance on Day 1 to ATKV Buffelspoort where we will be camping for the night.

Thanks again for the support up to this point. We’re excited to get going and we’ll keep you posted through our social media channels so please make sure you’re connected with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Posts Tagged with stornoway

Joburg2Kili for Qhubeka (powered by Tarsus) has begun – A Quick Update on our first 2 days

July 30th – Wave goodbye or come ride with us!