If you live and die for the two wheel thrill, the wind in your hair and a stylish pair biker sunglasses to cruise through the Mother City, then this Heritage Day, your tribe is calling you.
Open Streets Cape Town will be celebrating Heritage Day on Friday September 24 with a cycling escapade, hosted by The Community Collective. Start gearing up friends, because this one is all about connecting community, with a little peddling along the way.
We ride at dawn.
Alright, not literally. We ride at 8am in fact. Mastoera (Ocean View) Lubha (Masiphumelele) and Tiffany (Kommetjie).
What makes this ride so unique?
According to Tiffany Chalmers, one of the event organisers, the event is already pretty unique because the hosts didn’t actually start with cycling in mind. What it did start off with, however, was a desire to connect communities. The initial planning stages saw her community addressing issues of social cohesion and fabric, and the systemic issues facing the Deep South. The heart of the initiative was connecting people, and spaces. As Open Streets notes, bicycles seemed to be a great way to do achieve this.
Connecting communities
For Tiffany, there are some assumptions about the people of the Deep South, or the Southern Peninsula. The people of the Southern Peninsula of the Cape Town Metro can be somewhat stereotyped as residents who are very laid back, but this view voids the “diverse and economically distinctive settlements,” which make up a huge portion of the city.
“We want to simply ride with people of these communities and intentionally connect them by bicycle. You can leave your preconceived ideas behind and be in a space on its own terms. Not as an onlooker, but as a participant,” Tiffany says.
As Open Streets express, it’s not a sightseeing tour, but an invitation to connect with friends and partners in different communities.
More about the event
Bonus: The four hour cycle will end off with a team braai, but along the way there will be snack stops and points of interests to journey through together.
If you’re interested in getting your pedal on – community style, then pop any of the numbers seen in the flyer an RSVP, based on your area.
Picture: Open Cycles