The Journey of a Thousand Faces expedition will see me circumnavigating the African continent on my bicycle. I aim to launch the second leg of my journey in 2010 and will launch from Signal Hill in Cape Town.
After that I will head up to Namibia and Angola, travelling clockwise through the continent, and crossing 36 of its 52 countries. New Year I will probably spend in Morocco.
The most challenging countries will probably be Liberia, Somalia and Kenya. But if it gets hard I will just go into my survival mode. I have done that before.
The whole of Africa is a real inspiration to me. Africa is such a colourful, diverse, warm, wonderful continent, filled with so many wonderful individuals. I am inspired on a daily basis by people, both famous and ordinary. People who have fire in their hearts and live life to the fullest, no matter their limitations, they all inspire me.
This is why I have chosen the specific project of being the first woman to circumnavigate the African continent on a bicycle. I have this life and this experience here and now on this earth only once. I have therefore decided that I want this life of mine to be an extraordinary one. I have reclaimed my dreams. Re-ignited my desire for a better life and re-instated my right to happiness. By living my dream I hope to inspire others to do the same in the world. What I am doing might not be of the norm, but in my opinion, if we always stuck to the norm we would leave no room for change to happen. We as humans have become so incredibly effective at making ourselves believe that we do not deserve the greatest good life has to offer. I hope to change this, even in the smallest of ways.
What better place to start than Africa? A continent ridiculed by poverty, crime, malnutrition, disease and corruption. I want to tell the people of Africa: 'You do deserve happiness, you deserve a better life and you are deserving of your dreams. And it is available to you; you just have to claim it.'
No matter what age, sex, race, culture or religion you are.
We are all here together, sharing that which is the human experience. We all want a better life, less corruption, less crime, a healthier planet etc. It is only when we work together that we will achieve this. Thought it has to start on an individual level.
A lot of people might say: 'You have to face reality!'
Well, reality is that: you create your own reality.
