Then I discovered he was actually visiting Cape Town in support of the JAG Foundation - a South African charity that runs community-based sporting and educational programmes - and that his schedule would include a fund-raising ride from Lourensford Wine Estate in Somerset West to the Arabella resort near Kleinmond. This was much closer to home and, more importantly, would start at a very decent 11am! So I phoned the JAG people and asked if the riders would take the coastal road (through Gordon's Bay, where Phil Liggett has a holiday home), or go over Sir Lowry's Pass.
Why? they asked.
Cos!, I said
No, they said, we can't tell you. People are paying a lot of money [approximately £16,000] to take part in the ride, so we want to keep it low profile. If we tell you, we have to tell everybody.
Uhm. The ride was in the middle of the week; there were only two possible routes; and ALL cyclists like to be cheered on... Doesn't make sense.
Anyway - I thought if they really want it to be low profile, they'll cycle over Sir Lowry's Pass. So we drove that way first, and figured if we couldn't spot them within 30mins, we should take the other route - which, in hindsight, was the obvious, more scenic, choice. We started driving towards the coastal route, but then my mum decided we needed to fill up the car first. Then she thought we'd better get the tyres checked as well. And the oil. Maybe the water too. And, of course, there would never be a better time to clean the windows.
Approximately three years later, we drove through Gordon's Bay, and at the t-junction where we had to turn onto the coastal road, a traffic cop pulled us over. They're coming, I said, and jumped out. My mum got out too. And just in time - seconds later they were gone.
(Hope I haven't lost my only reader with this fascinating story!)
