A Netherlands man so loved Africa that he decided to take a safari and cycle from Egypt’s Cairo to Cape Town in aid of the needy.
Proceeds of 28-year-old Robbert Popken’s cycling safari through Africa will go towards the Trevor Manuel School in Fisantekraal on the outskirts of Durbanville in Cape Town.
Popken had a stop-over at Nomzamo Creche in Alexandra on the corner of Vincent Tshabalala Road and 16th Avenue, where he had a chat with creche owners, teachers and children about their challenges.
Nomzamo is one of the projects being funded by Babuyile, a charity organisation based in Johannesburg but with roots all over South Africa. Popken also had the luxury of teaming up with his girlfriend, Nikki Noorman, who flew here specially to rekindle their love after nearly six months without seeing each other.
He leaves for Cape Town in a week’s time and hopes to cycle through Lesotho en-route to his final destination, having already been to Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, on his way to South Africa.
The start of the adventure began when Popken had a casual chat with his Netherlands friend, Alef Meulenberg about his wish to visit Africa. They debated the best way of doing this and hit on a cycling safari. Meulenberg, who started a charity organisation known as Rhiza in 2010, then decided that Popken should cycle in aid of the needy in Africa.
Meulenberg then chose the school in Cape Town as he had worked on a project at the school before with some South Africans from Babuyile.
About R300 000 from the proceeds of the cycling safari will go to the school. Popken will hand over the money when he finishes his cycling trip in Cape Town at the end of November.
He travelled incident-free through the various countries of Africa. However, he had his first puncture on the N1 from Pretoria to Johannesburg, and was also nicked by the side mirror of a motorist’s vehicle.
“Joburg motorists are the worst drivers. They are not all that courteous to other road users,” he commented.
“Joburg is a city so furious with the rat race,” retorted this journalist to the amusement of the audience.
