Posts

Packing and Penicillin

Nobody ever said that this was going to be easy. Cycling from London to Cape Town takes a lot of planning. I remember what they used to tell us during my Trekforce days: It’s all about remembering the Ps; Prior Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

So, we have planned and prepared for this journey with every minute we have had; however, nothing could prepare us for the past few days. They say there are three stable points in your life, and if you rock more than one, life gets very stressful. We both finished work last week, and today we finished packing up our worldly possessions and moved them out of our home. Alongside all of this, we’ve had builders in to fix a big leak that required re-plastering our bedroom (twice), the washing machine broke (of course it did) and to top it all off, I got bitten on my foot on Friday night.

But this wasn’t any bite, this was a bite from some evil specimen that has caused chaos ever since, and by yesterday evening, my whole foot was swollen, and the swelling was spreading up my leg. I’m now on two sets of penicillin to stop the infection from spreading further; otherwise, I’ll be spending my last week in the hospital instead of with my family. Whilst pretty bad timing, it has also allowed us to re-evaluate the antibiotics we plan to take with us and refresh the information we learned on our wilderness first aid. If this were to happen en route, we probably would have dealt with it more immediately without giving it the option to spread.

one little insect can cause a lot of problems

one little insect can cause a lot of problems

It’s a shame as I may not be able to get on my bike now before we leave. However, I guess we have a year to get practice in. London to Brighton is going to feel like a very long way, that’s for sure.

On that note, we look forward to seeing those of you joining us on 12 July. Let’s hope this sun keeps shining 🙂