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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.



Monday, October 22, 2012

Meeulanders Mcc Dart Run 2012

I had occasion to ride with the Meeulanders Motorcycle Club again this past weekend, it was their annual "Dart run", along much the same lines as the well known poker runs held by many clubs. With this run, however, instead of drawing a card at each of several organised stops you throw a dart.
We met at the "Wingerd" pub and disco in Vredenburg at midday and by the time I arrived there was already quite a large gathering.
Some of the guys were already busy braaiing the boerewors, included in the modest entry fee was a badge and two really good boerewors rolls with a delicious tomato and onion relish.
Mark and Charmain were in charge of the dart competition and they made sure that no time was wasted, everyone was called up to throw their dart, here it's Daan's turn and he looks confident.
Frank glares at the board after his throw, this was the only place where the board was at regulation height, at all of the other stops the board was either on the floor or just above it so that dart champions didn't have an advantage.
After that the boerewors rolls were served and very nice they were too! Kick stands up at 13h30 and a brisk ride through to Hopefield, twenty five bikes in a well-disciplined staggered formation - a stirring sight, we lined them up outside the Hopefield Lodge.
There were only three or four people in the pub but we sure took the place over! I'm not sure how many people were on the ride but most of the bikes had pillion riders so somewhere around forty, a nice cash injection for any bar.
Here the dart board was on the floor, leaning against the wall and the dart had to thrown with the "dumb hand"! I'm hopeless at darts at the best of times so I wasn't doing too well at all.
Dierdre's turn, once everyone had thrown their darts it was time to move on, not too much time spent at the various places, don't want the people drinking too much.
Anton's ride, a nice paint job and masses of gleaming chrome. From there we rode some fifty odd kilometres to Malmesbury, a fast pace through the wheat farming area, wide open spaces and virtually no traffic and there to a pub previously unknown to me.
This was a very difficult throw, here Marina tries to aim her dart.
Willie's turn. I had to throw five darts before I even hit the board and then scored a measly eight! I definitely was not in the running for any prizes.
Ed's Diner at the Barn in Riebeek Kasteel was the next venue in the competition, only about 22kms but much better riding country into the wine area and down into the Riebeek valley. The place was packed so we set ourselves up outside;
Mike's turn, with a young audience. Next venue was the hotel in Mooreesburg where the people were to stay over for the night. A good ride, only some thirty kilometres and it was there that I peeled away from the group and thundered off for home. Janet and I had plans for the next day and I wasn't in the dart competition.
I had had a very pleasant afternoon with my friends, some good riding although the whole loop was only 247kms, I left them to the party and enjoyed my ride through the approaching evening, arriving home just after 18h00.
I spoke to Div, the club president who said that the party had been very enjoyable, he only went to bed at 06h00 for about an hour and Frank told me that he didn't bother going to bed, he went straight from the bar into breakfast! Delinquents, neither of them could tell me who eventually won the dart competition but kudos to all concerned for a very well organised event.
 

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