ADVENTURER Mark Beaumont has captured a new world record for cycling across Africa.
Beaumont reached the finish line at Mouille Point in Cape Town at 4.22pm UK time this afternoon.
He has completed an almost 7,000-mile journey from Cairo in 42 days, 10 hours and 22 minutes - beating the existing record by just under 17 days.
The 32-year-old from Perthshire started his journey in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on April 10 and has travelled through Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa.
Waiting to meet him in Cape Town was his wife Nicci, 32, and their 21-month-old daughter Harriet along with Beaumont's mother Una.
Speaking after he crossed the finish line, Beaumont said his overwhelming emotion was relief.
"There is a lot of pressure, pain and obsession on a ride like that for 42 days," he said. "Getting to the finish is an incredible relief.
"I'm sure I will wake up tomorrow and be jumping up and down, but that's not the emotion you feel at the finish."
Over the past six weeks Beaumont has overcome 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 Scot said he planned to celebrate this evening with a family dinner followed by a good sleep.
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 and his five crew-mates spent 14 hours in icy waters fighting for survival.
His remarkable feat in cycling across Africa is in distance terms the equivalent of riding the Tour de France three times back-to-back.
When Beaumont first began eyeing the Cairo to Cape Town world record it was held by Robert Knol of the Netherlands and stood at 70 days and three hours.
Keegan Longueira from South Africa completed the route in 59 days and eight hours in March this year, a time verified by Guinness World Records.
Beaumont earlier said that to bring home the pan-Africa record would complete what has always been his ultimate hat-trick.
"If you look at the world map you have the circumnavigation, Alaska to Tierra del Fuego and then Cairo to Cape Town: those are the three big endurance routes," he said.
"Back in 2007/08, I broke the round-the-world record by what was 81 days at the time and then followed that up with a nine-month journey down the Rockies and Andes.
"It's been five years since I've done anything big on the bike."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article