It’s said that it takes about 3 weeks to break a habit if you substitute it with a new one. Well, it’s now 3 weeks of rowing from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro and I don’t feel I’m anywhere near forming s habit of rowing for 2hrs, knocking to wake Wayne Robertson, eating something in a half daze at 3 in the morning, feeling like I’ve slept for 5 minutes before I’m woken for my next shift. Day and night, day and night, week after week.
At night, in the early hours, I feel only half conscious, my mind digging up long lost memories, some I can smile fondly about but most are demons. I use music to shorten the night sometimes as I peer into such moonless darkness as I’ve never seen. Only the rattle of the Leopard.tv and Nandos oars and the rushing short breaks of waves.

It had always been vital for me on all expeditions to find humour in tough times. Apart from my overwhelming array of under-the-table jokes, Wayne is a constant source of unsolicited laughter for me! Wayne has a tendency to ‘forget’ where he put something. He has a gift for losing things in the close confines of a tiny cabin inside of 5 minutes of putting it ‘somewhere’. An example: this morning he was looking for his toothpaste in his grab bag attached to a carabiner in its usual hanging space. He unhooked it, began meticulously unpacking the 20 or so items in front of him, including the toothpaste which, apart from being the largest item in the bag, he clearly didn’t see. I observed his frustration and shaking head incredulously. I was convinced he was now looking for something else. “What are you looking for?” I asked. “My toothpaste”, came the reply. “Here it is”, I said, pointing to it right in front of him. “Shit”, he said. “I’m at the bottom of my bag and thought it was n’t here!”
Humor and laughter are key to getting through tough time!

When I first decided I was going to row from Cape to Rio, it was not a quick decision logically. Yet, every ounce of my soul, that little voice which speaks volumes when one takes the time to be still and listen, urged me on and I knew, despite the many many setbacks, that I must undertake this formidable journey. A journey, not so much for me but a journey of significant hope for a tired and ailing Earth. For it is only with hope at my core and vision in my heart that I dare challenge each and every individual that this precious planet supports, to be humbled by this miracle we take so for granted. That we acknowledge, not by nodding our heads in agreement, but in the only true way of understanding what we have done; by action. The word ‘love’ is bandied around glibly by so many, yet true love is a ‘doing word’ and action. As Kahlil Gibran once said; “Work is love made visible”. When we work consciously towards a better future, we feel better as individuals because everything.
g is indeed connected. Just as the spider web is intricately connected by many strands, so is our fragile eco system. When too many of the spiders web are broken, the web is beyond repair and cannot serve its purpose. We, as a species, are at the point of breaking our Earth to such an extent, that She will will be beyond repair. This we have done in the nano second of some 160 years in the 3.4 billion years of Her evolution and incredible diversity of life! And all in the name of greed.
Can we change this terrible trajectory we find ourselves on? My heart and mind shout out a resounding ‘YES’! For never before have we been able to reach so many in such a short space of time. This is the power of social media. But the time of change is NOW, within the decade. Never before, in all of human history, have we been given the tools and the power in numbers to begin an unsurpassed journey of AWARENESS and ACCOUNTABILITY!
I humbly invite each and every person reading this blog to become more involved by DOT - Do One Thing for our Earth and then PAYING IT FORWARD by challenging your friends, work associates, school mates to do the same. Hold people accountable. Challenge people, invite people to ‘be the change they want to see in the world’ (Ghandi).
I invite you to be on this journey with us. Know that every pull we do with our blistered hands, every pull we do in tempestuous seas, we all are pulling together for a better future. Stand by us through your actions and join the #DOTChallenge
#OudeMolenCapeBrandy #REMAXSA #maverickscapetown #LeopardTV#LoveShimmy
#MyPlanet #PoweredByASEA #xltravelnumberone
#xltravelbeyondtheordinary #NandosSouthAfrica #ishootwithorms#iprintwithorms #Mhondorogamelodge
Braam Malherbe