ADVENTURER Mark Beaumont is on target to complete his latest world record attempt ahead of schedule and should reach the finish line in Cape Town this week.
The 32-year-old from Perthshire crossed the border into South Africa last night, the eighth and final country in his 6,200 mile journey to cycle the length of Africa.
If Beaumont continues to rack up at least 150 miles each day he should finish his epic challenge by Saturday and claim a new world record of 44 days - shaving 15 days off the current fastest time set by South Africa's Keegan Longueira in March.
"I'm about a day-and-a-half ahead of schedule," said Beaumont. "My original plan, if I was to finish in 46 days, was a week [from today] but if I keep going at this pace I will finish on Saturday.
"It is all good roads ahead. I'm consistently doing more than 150 miles a day so as long as I keep bike and body going I can achieve that."
Starting from Cairo in Egypt, Beaumont's route so far has taken him through Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana and now South Africa.
Over the past five weeks Beaumont has battled food poisoning, stormy weather conditions, poor roads and mechanical issues. He had to fight off a mugger and has come within inches of being knocked from his bike by passing vehicles.
"The hardest thing to deal with by far is the near misses on the road and there was quite a few through Tanzania and northern Zambia," he said. "The big haulage trucks give you no space at all.
"There is very little room on the roads. We are talking inches away. I've been run off the roads many times and there have been a couple of incredibly close calls."
Beaumont, who has previously cycled around the world and across the Americas, has so far raised more than £30,000 for Orkidstudio, a Glasgow-based humanitarian architecture charity.
The Africa Solo challenge marks Beaumont's first major expedition since 2012 when his boat capsized on a world record attempt to row across the Atlantic Ocean.
He faced a hitch in his cycling efforts last week when a pedal broke. An appeal on social media saw a pilot in Zambia come forward to offer the pedals from his own bike.
"I can't believe I managed to find a replacement in southern Zambia within a couple of hours," said Beaumont. "The pedal had sheared off and all the bearings had gone in it. This pilot came to the rescue and literally gave me the pedals off his bike."
In recent days, meanwhile, Beaumont has witnessed the wildlife in Botswana at close quarters.
"I had a giraffe running alongside me," he said. "At night these elephants would just appear at the roadside, these huge grey beasts and I would scuttle to the other side of the road. They were only eight or 10 metres away. I would get past them as quickly as possible.
"There was miles and miles with lots of trees and shrubs quite close to the road and my imagination was running wild with all of the beasts around me. Those elephants at night I will never forget."
While he remains in upbeat mood, Beaumont admitted that the cumulative effects of 12 hours a day in the saddle over five weeks was starting to take its toll.
"I'm very saddle sore," he said. "I have some pretty nasty calluses and sores. The fronts of my feet, at the point where the cleats [of his shoes] clip in, I can feel that the whole padded part of the foot is incredibly bruised. My feet are painful."
As he clocks up the miles, however, Beaumont said that the psychological toil is proving every bit as testing as the physical side.
"Each day you go through incredible highs and lows which are hard to describe," he said. "It is wonderful, exciting, beautiful and it is Africa but there are long hours on the bike which are absolute torture. It is a psychological rollercoaster."
Beaumont added that there had been little opportunity to reflect on the journey so far nor to think ahead to that big finish line moment in Cape Town now only days away.
"My mindset is so stuck in each day and just getting through hour by hour. The big picture is quite hard for me to step back and see," he said.
"My team led by my mum Una back in the Scotland are starting to plan ahead and I'm getting bits of news fed to me about my progress and projected finish. But, for me, it still very much about getting through each day because anything can happen."
The public can follow Beaumont's progress online with half-hourly updates via GPS tracking on his website and through social media using the hashtag #AfricaSolo
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