24.12.2007, Cape L'Agulhas - the southernmost tip of Africa (South Africa): After a few relaxing days in Windhoek we are rolling again southwards. It is awfully hot, dry and the distances between the possibilities to stay overnight and filling up our food supplies are getting extremely long. It gets quite normal to ride 150 kilometers per day. Tailwind keeps us company when we are cycling through the soft hills and blows us across the Tropic of Capricorn. There are no more shrubs and bushes, just dry grasses are the only plants "growing" around here. But anyway, there is still agriculture. Like in the whole country we are riding day after day along endless fences - bushcamping is almost impossible. In the north it was farming cattle, here in the south it is farming sheep, that separates the whole area into huge fenced areas - for only one sheep you need 11 ha and you need at least 300 sheep to make any profit! Here in the middle of nowhere we are riding our longest day-distance so far on this trip: 216,24 kilometers (see superlatives). As a treat we reach a special location for our nightcamp: between granit boulders and quivertrees. Towards South Africa the landscape gets more exciting. Granitblocks and mountains are forming the surroundings. We are staying overnight at the shore of Oranje River, which marks the border between Namibia and South Africa. It is a green oasis in the dusty and dry land around. On the next day we are crossing the river and suddenly already are in the last state we visit in Africa on this trip. Still there are almost no villages on the first few hundred kilometers, but anyway there are things that changed drastically in the new countr: Massive, steep, long uphills and the road is meandering through and across the hills and mountains. There is a strong wind permanently blowing in our faces from the south, which is breaking our speed on the downhills to 14km/h and in the flat down to 8 km/h. Riding is a big fight and the 150 km which we were riding in Namibia easily before early afternoon become a surreal number for here. But the landscape is exciting and changing a lot. Mountains, small valleys, different rock and weathering formations. Also the vegetation has changed drastically. No grasslands any more, but a colourful carpet of succulents with thick leaves and low greenish bushes covers the hills. Summers are hot and dry in the Western Cape area, but anyway we get surprised by two days of quite some rain, when heavy thunderstorms are showing their power. From the cars people are waving, signalling thumbs up and sometimes they even stop and want to give us a lift to the next village - unfortunately we always deny :-) Wherever we stop people are interested and friendly. We sleep in a village at an artist- and environmentalist-family, who invited us to stay, and get stuck in Vansrhyndorp a day later, because the southerly wind is blowing "unbikable" against us. In the next days the windsituation is better, but too many trucks are on the too narrow road without a paved shoulder. If there are two trucks coming towards each other, it gets tight - no space for cyclists. The road is winding around mountains and hills - it is one of the most dangerous parts of the trip so far. All of a sudden it is getting greener and greener. Huge wine plantations and fruit orchards, pumpkinfields, trees and grass. Finally we turn off the main track and ride small roads with almost no  traffic along fertile valleys through the south african wine region. Alpine landscapes - yes, real mountains!!!, nice campsites, great wines. South Africa is a strange country. Public life is white. Huge farms with white owners, big cars, which are driven by (mainly) white people, campsites and backpackers, where the white owners meet you in the door... Black are (seen in a simple way) the ladies at the cassiers, the guy at the petrol station, the cleaning personal and the folks hanging around the entrance of the bottle-shop and the supermarket. The villages are in tip-top conditons and dominated by whites. There are townships around: settlements of small, hut-like houses, garbage and no cars. Something is completely wrong in this country... A car stops. An old, friendly man is hopping off and gives us some peaches. As a goodbye he is warning us: "Take care of the people!" We don't understand. "The ones with the thick lips and the curly hair, those are bad!" Then he drives off and leaves us standing beside the road with an open mouth and a questionmark in our faces. Sometimes we think we don't hear right - what some of the "thin lips" are talking is scarily racist. Although we have lots of side- and headwinds, driving goes quickly. We leave the mountains behind and get into the hilly areas in the south. We plan to meet Bruno, who we were cycling with for a month (see bikers we met), at Cape L'Agulhas - the southernmost point of Africa, that can be reached by road - again and spend Christmas together. In Bredasdorp, a small village just 45 kilometers from the Cape we look for the campsite. By one tree we see a bicycle leaning. Bruno is here! So we already meet one day before it was planned, and cycle on the 23rd of december the last kilometers to Cape L'Agulhas together against muscle-killing headwinds. Around lunchtime we are standing at the Cape and look towards Antarctica!! A great feeling!! A hard breeze in the face with a spray from the huge waves in the sea - a good atmosphere! We have been riding 22.745 kilometers from the beginning of the road in Norway (North Cape) to the end of the road in South Africa (Cape L'Agulhas)! Time for some relaxation: today we will - sweaty and with dusty bikes - check in the best place in town and stay for two nights - thanks to Eva for this marriage-present (drawing by Alexander Zernin, www.kiwicomics.at)! We will celebrate Christmas together with Bruno at the Cape, and then ride some easy days up to Cape Town, from where we will catch a flight to Perth. 2008 will be the Australia-year!