[Amélie hands a beggar at the station some money] Beggar: Sorry madam, I don't work on Sundays.

That's what you can call commitment to the task. Is there anything you commit to at that level? At the moment for me it is waking up at 5:45am for a ride. It is dark till just before 7am so I stick those flashy lights on which have helped so far as I still have not been knocked over. It's also cold, but not nearly as cold as I think it is while still in bed imagining what the conditions are like outside. Less than two minutes into the ride and the conditions are forgotten, the darkness feels comfortable and the cold seem to be there just to give you a good morning salutation rather than for any form of discomfort. The coast road is pretty quiet that time of day and Chapman's Peak closed to traffic so extra special to be cruising up there in solitude. By the time we get to Hout Bay the fishing boats are heading out and you know those poor buggers must have been up early and gone to bed late if there is a run of snoek, tuna or yellow tail - commitment.

On the way back along to coast road now traveling with the masses of traffic heading to work, just past the 12 Apostles Hotel there is a general fracas ahead as a line of cars in building up on the shoulder of the road, having hopped out their cars to stare at the ocean. Blue and I wondered what had made the manic work goers loose precious time on their work trip so we stopped to stare like lemmings. It was not long before we noticed the incredibly large fin from the humpback whale as the dude rolled around on his belly. Just about 20m from the shoreline so we could see the barnacles that patterned his body hitching themselves to the large beast for a lifetime of free riding. What was interesting though was although this big guy was just bobbing around and looked at ease, the vibe from the people was that he MUST be in in trouble. Cell phones were out as wild life organisations were hastily harassed with warnings that they had best come and save the poor whale. I don't think the old boy was in trouble at all with hardly even a swell to lift a piece of kelp out of the water. We said good bye to the Whale and cruised past the startled cars to finish the ride that took so much effort to commit to, but was so clearly worthwhile the effort.