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Welcome to my blog, these are the ramblings and musings of an (upper) middle aged biker and if you enjoy braais, (barbeques) beers and motorbikes then hopefully you will enjoy what Janet and I do; we do lots of braais, we drink lots of beer and we tour South Africa on our motorbike, which at the moment is a BMW R1200RT. Join us, read about what we do and please leave us your comments.



Sunday, November 21, 2010

Local ride

The first chance I got to ride again after the rally last weekend was this morning, Janet is now in Capetown having a reunion with her five sisters and she is going to be there for the week so this leaves me at home alone trying to cope again!
I got the big red machine out of the garage this morning and gave it a really good wash and polish, this is a labour of love and it gives me a chance to check that all is ok - like the back tyre!!
I rode down to Paternoster which is a little fishing village some 30kms from Saldanha, the name means "Our Father" and what started out as a fishing village is now a very well established holiday town.
The Lobster (Crayfish) season has opened and now you can buy them on the side of the road from the locals, this is not strictly legal but I have it on good authority that if you only buy one or two for your own use the compliance officers will turn a blind eye, but don't quote me if you get caught!. There have been some really serious stand-offs between the subsistence fishermen and the authorities in this little town in the past and I think they tend to stay away, we have bought here before without any trouble.
I found out from Frank that the rest of the guys were in Velldrif where there had been a memorial run for Dudley and Carolyn who had died exactly a year ago, I rode out there and met them at the "Admiral's Pub" and after a beer there we went through to Des' shop on the Berg river.
There were already quite a few bikers there and we had another beer or two, while we were sitting on the veranda quite a few cars drove by and I asked Des; "What about these people driving past who see a lot of bikers here and decide not to stop?"
His reply was brief and to the point; "Fuck them." We spent a very pleasant hour or so there, several of the "Kreefsmokkelaars" were there too and as much as I was enjoying myself I had to go off and get something to eat. Also it started to rain and I was a bit pissed off that I had just washed the bike that morning!
Des' shop is a treasure trove of things to see and things to laugh at, check out his CCTV set up! The sign below "Verwoed Road" says "Non whites only", where the hell he got those nobody knows! Throwbacks from the apartheid days obviously and those are now collectors items. From there we went through to the Phoenix bar and as Danny was having a club meeting we helped ourselves, a couple of beers there and it was time to head home,
I had previously taken the big red machine home and put it in the garage, I figure that it is more difficult to fall off four wheels than two and trust me, I am a very responsible drinker..............I mean driver!
Wednesday I am going to Capetown to get the big red machine serviced and then I am going to see all of the sisters-in-law, all five of them! Keep me in your thoughts!

3 comments:

Geoff James said...

Andrew,
I hope you didn't have too big a task list from Janet whilst she was away to keep you out of mischief - I always seem to get one!

Commiserations on your forthcoming visit, I always seem to get picked on when Jennie's sister and Jennie get together!

Had my old boss visit this weekend so it was spit-roasted lamb with all the trimmings and far, far too much Pinot Noir. Quite sluggish today!

GF said...

Why is it not legal to buy off the locals? 5 sisters-in-law? good luck buddy :-)

the rider said...

Thanks Geoff, there's one of Janet's sisters in particular that I'm quite scared of!
I love spit roasted lamb, we do that every now and then too!

Hi George, officially you have to have a permit to have crayfish in your vehicle and you are only allowed four per day.