Day 5.
Another day complete and I am feeling stronger than ever. Today we rode 86km, we were hampered by extensive roadworks, poor road surfaces with many potholes, our country's roads really need urgent attention. On the charity side we donated secondhand toys collected by Rotary to small children at a pre-primary school, their little faces lit up as they received their toys. They then sang us two songs which I have on Video but our accommodation does not have Internet so no pictures or videos today. Our second donation was with Engen to a local pre-primary school in the town where we are staying. These schools rely on donations as grants from Government are very low and they would not be able to operate their schools on the grants alone. It is really a concern, our children are not been given the opportunity to receive the education they need.
Today we crossed the Orange River, the provincial border between the Free State and the Eastern Cape Province. We are staying in the town called Aliwal North and tomorrow we ride toward Queenstown, 160km away. We have donations to make along the way so will probably ride 120km of the 160km. Tomorrow night we sleep in Grahamstown, the home of Caitlin and Vaughan's (our children) university. I will make Vaughan very jealous by taking the cyclists for a beer at his favourite pub, the Rat and Parrot.
Aliwal North and me share a common name, my second name is Aliwal. The town was given it's unusual name by a gentleman called Sir Harry Smith, the Governor of the Cape who named it Aliwal North to commemorate the famous battle in which he defeated the Sikhs of India in 1846. Now how is that linked to my name? In 1849 our ancestors arrived in South Africa from The UK as Burne Settlers on a ship called the Aliwal,the ship was named after the same battle in India. My Great Grandfather was born on that ship as it arrived in Durban and was given the name Aliwal. The name has stayed in the family since and both myself and my Cousin Robert Voysey, who joins the ride in Port Elizabeth, have Aliwal as our second name.
Well that's all for today, hopefully I can include pictures in tomorrow's update.