The temperature outside Pomana Guest house 10th August was 1°C early in the morning at 8:00. I worked hard to convince myself that it was not cold enough to stop my enthusiasm to my 86th country Mozambique; I succeeded. I had my cycling gears on was set to move. I felt little odd without my tailor. This time, I decided to cycle to Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho without it. Since I plan to return back South Africa after Lesotho, on early September, I took the tailor off and safely placed at Pomana Guest House. And again with the motivation to add more distance to my 88,888 Km trip on bicycle around the world, I am on.

Of course, the 25 days after I left Pretoria to Kempton Park were memorable. Most of the time in Johannesburg, I stayed at Pomana Guest House. The guest house is owned by Mr. Awatar Gurung, a renowned Nepalese businessman and President of NRN South Africa. I was allowed to stay at the Airport Lodge guest house (a 3 star facility guest house) for 22 days without any charge. I am humbled by the courtesy and benevolence of Mr. Gurung. I shared a lot of little, precious and unforgettable time with everyone in the Pomana Lodge. The best of all was the pleasant conversation with Mr. Gurung besides the fire camp till midnight most of the times.

Days were chill, comfortable and smooth until Mr. Sunil Chaudhary added excitement on it. At Mr. Chaudhary’s place, on the 22nd of July, I along with friends from Mr. Sunil’s Company had an awesome barbeque party. Amazed, friends from the company asked a lot of questions, I loved answering all of them.

The roads from Johannesburg and Pretoria knew me and my bike pretty will as I travelled the 55 Km distance plenty of times. I needed to go Pretoria to apply and get visa for my upcoming destinations. In Pretoria I am thankful to Mr. Raj Gyanwali for his wonderful gift.

On invitation of Nepalese in Alex, I left Kempton 3rd of August. We spent a lot of memorable moments together at Neha and Roshani Trading and B & B Nepal Trading with Nepalese in Alex. I am thankful to everyone in Alex for the financial support which Mr. Naina Kumar Gurung handed me before I left Alex on 6th.

Though, I planned to start pedaling to next country on 9th; I couldn’t, because of heavy snowfall on 8th of August. I started on Friday the tenth. Sunil Neupane’s support to get some funds to aid my Mozambique trip was very important for me. I am grateful to everyone in South Africa and hope to see you all soon.

PEACE AND HARMONY
Furtemba Sherpa