Oh The Places You'll Go. Oh The PEOPLE You'll Meet. Oh The Impact You'll Make. | Nigel Payne

FREEDOM CHALLENGE ALLOWS US TO SEE AND EXPERIENCE THINGS THAT MOST PEOPLE DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO DREAM ABOUT.

ONCE YOU HAVE RIDDEN FREEDOM CHALLENGE IT WILL DOMINATE YOUR DREAMS FOREVER.

In thinking about how to describe what riding Freedom Challenge is like, I realized that the story has already been told - by Dr Seuss - so I started with some extracts from his incredible book 'Oh The Places You'll Go', then searched for more wisdom in the other 60+ books he wrote. I have made extracts from these and sequenced them in a way that I believe explains the Places, Sights, Challenges, Adventures, Fun, Dreams and Memories of Freedom Challenge - a life-changing experience. You can read them at the end of this note.

I often wonder whether the works of Dr Seuss inspired Freedom Challenge Founder David Waddilove (THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU FOUNDER DAVID) to create this incredible event for us. I see significant overlaps in their thinking about 'Oh The Places You'll Go'. The Places of Adventures, Dreams and Memories.

But Freedom Challenge takes us far beyond 'Oh The Places You'll Go'. Even though the sights, adventures, dreams and memories of Freedom Challenge are amongst the best I have ever experienced, they are far surpassed by 'Oh The People You'll Meet'.

My Huge THANK YOUs to everyone who makes this possible for us - especially our Hosts, you are OUR FREEDOM CHALLENGE FAMILY.

At every support station and interim stop along our 2150km journey each year we are hosted by the most incredible People, the very best of Humanity. Every one of the stops feels like HOME - the excitement builds inside me as I get closer, my thoughts dominated by the opportunity to spend time with our Hosts - sadly always over too quickly, given the time pressures of the event.

I have had the Privilege of doing 8 of my 10 Freedom Challenges with my Brother - Thank You Adi - I miss you every kilometer of every day, but I bask in the incredible memories of our rides together.

Other incredible Freedom Challenge People include Chris and Julia Fisher, our Organizers, who put such passion and energy into this event. The same applies to Mike, Pierre, Elton and the other Buffalo Herders, and to our Race Doctor, Grant Lindsay. Thank You All.

And our fellow Riders. More Wonderful People to meet.

Firstly, the Freedom Challenge Legends who blazed this trail and inspired many hundreds of other riders like me to follow your tyre tracks and footprints. The Big Five: Tim James, Marnitz Nienaber, Mike Woolnough, Martin Dreyer and Jacques Tattersall. Thank You All.

And many other riders who epitomize the ethos and spirit of this event by your attitude, resilience and passion. Riders like Estelle Labuscagne, Charl van der Spuy, Mark Basel, John Bowen and many more. We all aspire to be more like you.

We also get the opportunity to meet hundreds of incredible People from all walks of life as we ride across South Africa.

'Oh The Places You'll Go. Oh The People You'll Meet'.

But there's more. Much more. Freedom Challenge gives us the opportunity and the platform to make an impact on the lives of others by supporting the Freedom Trail Scholarship Fund. A life-changing impact on these scholars, their Families and Communities.

As Nelson Mandela said: 'Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world'.

We are also able to use Freedom Challenge to raise funds for other great causes like the Reach For A Dream Foundation.

Oh The Impact You'll Make on the Lives of Other People.

My huge THANK YOUs to everyone who makes this possible for us every year.

Oh The Places You'll Go.

(Full acknowledgements to Dr Seuss for the wisdom I have found in his 60+ books, some of which appears below, extracted and sequenced by me in the context of Freedom Challenge. For the full stories, plus beautiful pictures, read the Dr Seuss books).

Congratulations! Today is your day! You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away.

Today is your day, your mountain is waiting. So get on your way.

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And you are the one who’ll decide where to go.

Oh the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done!

It is fun to have fun.

You’ll be on your way up! You’ll be seeing great sights! You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.

Young cat! If you keep Your eyes open enough, Oh, the stuff you will learn! The most wonderful stuff!

In the house, and on the street, how many, many feet you meet.

If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said it’d be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.

Think! You can think any think that you wish...

And that is a story that no one can beat.

Day Play We play all day. Night Fight We fight all night.

If you want to get things you can’t buy in a store, you have to do things never thought of before.

Oh, the things you can find if you don’t stay behind!

From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.

Try them, try them, and you may! Try them and you may, I say.

Pop guns! And bicycles! Roller skates! Drums! Checkerboards! Tricycles! Popcorn! And plums! And he stuffed them in bags.

The ribbons! The wrappings! The tags! And the tinsel! The trimmings! The trappings!

If you never did, you should. These things are fun and fun is good.

Because when you stop and look around, this life is pretty amazing.

It’s opener, out there, in the wide open air.

I am lucky to be what I am! Thank goodness I’m not just a clam, or a ham, or a dusty jar of sour gooseberry jam! I am what I am – that’s a great thing to be!

You are you, that is truer than true.

Thank goodness for all the things you are not, thank goodness you’re not something someone forgot, and left all alone in some punkerish place, like a rusty tin coat hanger hanging in space.

And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed!

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed. You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead. Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest. Except when you don’t. Because, sometimes, you won’t.

With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

When he worked, he really worked. But when he played, he really PLAYED.

Oh, what a day. I will make it a holiday.

Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.

If you want to catch beasts you don’t see every day, You have to go places quite out of the way, You have to go places no others can get to. You have to get cold and you have to get wet, too.

The storm starts when the drops start dropping. When the drops stop dropping then the storm starts stopping.

I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny, but we can have lots of good fun that is funny.

The three words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote: Stink. Stank. Stunk.

In the places I go there are things that I see that I never could spell if I stopped with the Z.

You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.

You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.

And what happened then? Well, in Whoville they say that the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day.

Just tell yourself, Duckie, you’re really quite lucky.

You’re in pretty good shape for the shape you are in.

Look at me! Look at me! Look at me NOW! It is fun to have fun But you have to know how.

Being crazy isn’t enough.

You have to be odd to be number one.

In my world, everyone’s a pony and they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies!

Think and wonder, wonder and think.

Look at life through the wrong end of the telescope.

It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become.

Here are some who like to run. They run for fun in the hot, hot sun.

And when you’re alone there’s a very good chance you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.

I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.

Out there things can happen, and frequently do, To people as brainy and footsy as you. And when things start to happen, don’t worry, don’t stew. Just go right along, you’ll start happening too.

Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak. Oh! The places you’ll go!

You can get so confused that you’ll start to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place. The Waiting Place...

And what would you do if you met a jibboo?

So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact.

Be grateful you’re not in the forest in France Where the average young person just hasn’t a chance To escape from the perilous pants eating plants. But your pants are safe, you’re a fortunate guy You ought to be shouting "how lucky am I".

There’s no limit to how much you’ll know, depending how far beyond Zebra you go.

Why fit in when you were born to stand out?

Only you can control your future.

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.

You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child. (Better still = make a donation to the Freedom Trail Scholarship Fund).

So, open your mouth, lad! For every voice counts!

How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?

I’m glad we had the times together just to laugh and sing a song, seems like we just got started and then before you know it, the times we had together were gone.

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.

Even though we may all become extinct, we can still leave our footprint in the sand.

Today is your day, your mountain is waiting. So get on your way.

Oh the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done!

It is fun to have fun.