CURIOSITY IN MOTION

Touring with a loaded bicyle is not recommended for the shy person who prefers to blend into the background. We constantly attract curious onlookers, and passing motorists hoot and wave (and we haven't even left the Western Cape yet!). When we stop at places the spectators stare at the bikes, take photo's, and paw the luggage (but I've yet to see someone actually lift my bike). Questions abound, such as: "What sort of spares do you carry?"; "How much does this lot weigh?"; and "Don't you get tired?". One chappie (referring to the drinking tube protruding from my backpack) asked if that was my oxygen supply (I wish!). On one occasion my answer "that I was planning to travel through Africa" was met with a blank stare, but when I said that we'd come from Cape Town the response was "that's a very long way". One elderly gentleman in a small town suggested (with tears in his eyes) that I should visit the Shepherds Hotel in Cairo where he'd once stayed as a child. He wasn't sure if the hotel still had the same name, but I would apparently recognise it by the 2 lions at the entrance.