Friday. October 29. Day 91

Today is Friday and we used this last day before the grand finale to prep and get our heads straight. Tomorrow is that day we all have been waiting for. After not seeing friends and family for three months Puddy spent some quality time catching up with his loved ones. Human spent some time with his lady and the rest of us explored Cape Town.

To all the readers remember to SMS PUDDY to 38665 as the lines are not closed yet.

A huge thanks to all the people involved. All the sponsors and all the places that gave us accommodation. Great thanks to Fire and ice that have cared for us like royalty. Thanks to all the news hounds and news papers who covered our story and gave us much needed publicity.

Saturday 16 October. Day 78

Hooray for sunshine.

Today was the first day of complete sunshine in about a week so everyone was in good spirits. Headed out to the road around 11 am and pushed a total of 22km’s. Max joined Puddy on the road. Only for a short while though. Not falling victim to Puddy’s ‘encouragement’ Max quickly jumped ship back into the van as they approached a fast downhill. At the bottom it became evident that Max had the right idea. Puddy went on to reach a top speed of 58km/h. Not a speed a novice skater wants to challenge on a short board. However Max joined Puddy again later and skated with him all the way to the front door of the Hotel.

The session went by surprisingly fast as most of the way was riddled with smooth mellow downhill’s.

The evening was spent watching the rugby. The majority of the team are Bulls supporters with Cornell being the only Province man. An amusing evening and a great way to end a hard week.

We are closing in on our destination with only a 10 days left on the trip. The excitement is definitely starting to build up.

Thursday. 14 October. Day 76

The rain came today. It washed all hopes of skating away. We tried going out to the marker hoping it would clear by the time we got there. We eventually turned around not even reaching the marker as it just kept gushing down. Hopefully it will clear up tomorrow as we are losing time due the delay caused by the weather.

Thanks to De Doorn Kraal for the accommodation.

A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL FOR YOUR CONTINUES SUPPORT! IT DIES NOT GO UNNOTICED

Don’t forget to sms PUDDY to 38665 or to click on the page above to order a shirt.

Tuesday. September 23. Day 53

The crazy guy on the road.......

Our heart warming day at the SOS Children’s Village came to a positive end and we were on the road again to our destination.

We set out from our accommodation; The Gecko Lodge in Blue Water Bay, rigged the sign and started the day’s session.

It is evident that, thanks to last night’s television exposure people are a lot more aware of us and the cause. Most of the cars hooted in support and the cash donations also picked up significantly as people noticed “that crazy guy skateboarding from Joburg to Cape Town.”

At first the road was terrifying. The section beyond the yellow line was super rough. Luckily after about six k’s it smoothed out giving Puddy a chance to enjoy the skating and the weather. It was the first day since last week that we enjoyed some sunshine again and helped us regain an average of 20km/h.

We made good time today and only have 32km’s left till we hit the J Bay turn off tomorrow. SABC man Mike Propter also met us on the road to come and greet. He was the man behind the news publicity last night.

Dj Fresh from 5fm also gave Puddy another call to hear how he was doing on the road.

Tomorrow we set out to our new base camp in Cape St. Francis.

A good day for skating

Top speed 25 km/h, Average 20 km/h, Distance skated 25, Tour distance 1147

Friday. September 17. Day 49

Great day for exposure...

Ate an early breakfast at the guesthouse and made our way out to the N2 where the SABC camera man filmed Puddy skating the Days stretch. He skated a total of 31km’s making up for some lost time.

People were exceptionally friendly to us on the road waving and cheering. We learned later the day that we were featured on the front page of the local paper The Herald that morning. Dj Fresh form 5FM also gave us a call around 16:30 which gave us some more media exposure.

The raod also offered thses footpaths next to the high way enabling Puddy a smooth and safe ride for the day. Cornell was also able to shoot some nice videos with the ocean backdrop.

The rest of the day was spent at the SOS Villiage. We will be spending Monday at the Villliage with all the children playing with them and enjoying a lunch.

Thanks to The Palace Gusthouse who fed us a lovely Breakfast.

Thursday. September 16. Day 48.

Danger on the road...

We went for the days session but Puddy found the traffic to intimidating and dangerous. There was nou yellw line or shoulder to skate on. So We travelled a distance of 7.8 km’s.

WE drove through to P.E. to sort out accomdation for the next few days and to get a feel for the road to P.E. The Palace Guesthouse sorted us out for one evening after which we transfer to the Protea Hotel.

That night we ate some Pizza on the board walk and discussed tomorrow. The SABC News team are meeting us tomorrow for an interview and to film us skate. This will hopefulle raise more awareness for the cause and push the donations higher.

A massive thanks to James at The Sundowner BB who hooked us up with accommodation the previous two nights.

Wednesday. 15 September. Day 47

Excitement in the air.

We started the day early and made the mission to the gentleman with the gyrocopter’s farm, dropped off Cornell and made it back to base camp to greet James as he heads to Cape Town today.

We met Cornell and the copter on the high way were we arranged to film some more aerial shots of Puddy skating. Our target for the distance skated is at a an all time low. Puddy has only to skate 13 km’s as we are only to arrive in P.E on Monday

We caught the early traffic which was comforting in a way as it’s been a while since we have been in a major city. During this session a motorist pulled from the high way, stopping a distance from us and stuck his hand out the window waving something. When Puddy arrived he was surprised as the guy donated R200 towards the charity. What a great guy. Hopefully we get more peoplelike this guy as we travel down the cost.

The wind, heat and humidity really tired us out and a power nap back at the BB was enjoyed. Waking up we went on down to the beach and enjoyed a swim. The wind was a bit strong but the ocean view was still a sight for sore eyes. We watched some Pro 20 cricket on which Puddy and Human place another bet. Human fore saw that the cricket would end a score of 200 and Puddy prophesied on 202. Human got it spot on and Puddy owed him R10.

Puddy braid us some meat and we enjoyed braaivleis and salad. Even though Puddy dropped the plate with all the meat we still dug in like wolves.

Tuesday. September 14. Day 46.

On the road again...

Packed up and ready to hit the road we were stopped in our tracks as the van packed up! The coils had burned out. Luckily a local from the township took us to his back yard workshop where he sorted the problem tjop tjop for a very reasonable price.

We started on the marker of yesterday skating through Paterson on the way to Colchester. The road was pretty standard rough at times and smooth on others. Skated a total of 31km’s, an average of 20km/h with a 55km/h top speed. Currently on 1070 km’s in total for SKATE FOR CHANGE 2010.

We stopped at the farm gates of the owner who owns the gyro copter we filmed from leaving Bloem. He agreed that he will take Cornell up again to get some aerial shots.

After we completed the last 14km’s of the day we made our way to the Sundowners BB were we are staying free of charge for two nights. Had some lovely Burgers and had a team meeting.

We end the day on somewhat of a sad note as James will be departing from the tour tomorrow.

Saturday. September 11. Day 43.

After yesterday’s off day we were back on the road and started on our marker by the Somerset turn off. James and Human had a swim to shake the heat and to wake up...

We are now moving in the direction of a place called Patterson. At first the road was rough but quickly smoothed out in some sweet downhill enabling Puddy to reach a top speed 54km/h. Passing a rad ditch on the side of the road we got our gambling hats out and made a bet that James won’t be able to crawl through a sewerage pipe under the road. He managed to do it, winning the bet and generating many laughs form the crew.

Cornell spent the night in Graaf Reinette, visiting some old friends in the area and will join the crew again tomorrow. After the session Puddy and James went for another session around d town whilst James cooked us up some nachos of note and Human watched the soccer.

Tomorrow we pack up and head to our new camp, Patterson.