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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.



Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Freedom Road rally 2015



Breakfast at the False Bay Wimpy was good, by the time we pulled in it was 10h30 and we had been on the road for almost two and a half hours.  Twelve bikes and sixteen people had left the meeting place, which this time had been at the Langebaan air force base, and at which there was some confusion, but we got out on the road on time. I must confess that I did not enjoy the route very much, heading down towards town on the N1, across on the R300 to the N2 on a Friday meant dicing with traffic which was heavy and which made it difficult for us to stay together but eventually we enjoyed breakfast together.
From there we climbed over Sir Lowry's Pass, enjoyable curves and fast straights but we fought with people who did not want to move over, almost simultaneously Jannie overtook a woman on the left as I passed her on the right, she seemed agitated as if she didn't know that all she had to do was pull over slightly to let us past.
We found a pub in Caledon and gathered for a beer, Divi our President said that he and Jannie who were both on CBR's were going to go ahead on the fabulous 80km road to Bredasdorp and they would wait for us outside the garage, I was not long after them after my two beers, both of which which seemed to improve the big red machine's cornering abilities.
Caledon to Bredasdorp, what a fabulous road! Most of the people who read this will know it? A great surface, wide shoulders and long sweeping bends, 180 to 200km/h means that it doesn't take long to get to Bredasdorp and I soon found Divi and Jannie;
relaxing with their bikes waiting for the rest to arrive. From there it is 30kms to Struisbaai and we arrived to find that our camp site had already been set up, what a bargain!
We were teamed up with "Knights of the skies"  an air force club from LangebaanWeg and they had carried our kit in a bakkie, not only that but they had arrived early and had erected all of the tents.

By the time that I had pumped up my mattress and had tried to put it in the tent, which was ridiculously small, it had started to deflate! I was longer than the mattress and it didn't fit into the tent, apart from that I slept on the ground for both nights.
But this is rally - right?

The first thing that the Meeulanders and the Knights do is light a fire; "Ons gaan NOU braai!", the guys are organised and they concentrate on relaxing and socialising. Good meat is on sale as is decent food, Frank and I ate a really good Eisbein and chips that evening, we needed to get our stomachs lined for the party that was to ensue!

Willie found a new friend, "Rocky" who stayed with him for the weekend.  As was usual our "village" had a comfortable Gazebo set up to keep us out of the rain which was a brief problem during the early hours of Saturday Morning.

My good friend and brother 'cois (Soy) a solid biker, and a genuine nice guy, as are most if not all of the club members.
The weather was not all that good on Friday evening, the wind blew and we had a little bit of rain but the party raged on, this was what me and my brother Frank are born for; and we partied on into the early hours, even after everyone else had gone to bed.
Christian Motorcycle Association Rallies are notoriously boring, sorry guys if you read this but it's true. By 03h00 we had nothing else to do but to call it a night! But fear not, I have some suggestions, I will let you know how you can improve the rally, stay with me.
I was awake early on Saturday morning, mostly because I was sore and stiff from sleeping on the hard ground, my mattress, which was smaller than my tent and smaller then me, had deflated during the night!
I was in search of a greasy breakfast, I visited the CMA coffee tent at 07h00 and then saddled up for the short ride down to Cape Agulhas.
It was cold as I rode along the coastal road, the ozone aroma of the crashing waves was fresh and incredibly intense, invoking memories of seafood excursions along this coast in years gone by. I was hoping for more incredible seafood later but for now I was in search of a memorable breakfast and I found it!
The Southern-most restaurant was barely open as I parked outside and strode in, "Bring me coffee and your best breakfast" I grunted as I sat down, still feeling rough I was the first one there but others soon arrived, the breakfast went down singing hymns.
The mass ride was soon to pass my way but I did not feel like joining in, instead I would take photos along the road and follow along,
I parked the big red machine, which is incredibly photogenic anyway, in a convenient spot and waited for the mob to arrive.
The run ended at the lighthouse at the southernmost tip of the African continent, which I learnt from a speech by the local Mayor is 166 years old, still in its original condition apart from some renovations but the original structure remains unchanged - "Ho-hum, time to move on."
I must mention that after a quiet, rather boring, babelaas day I went to have a late lunch at "Seagulls" pub and restaurant, I chose a strategic seat and ordered a glass of white wine, I had the most amazing filet of Yellowtail with chips and salad, the freshest I have ever had,
strategic because I could watch the young waitress with the short denim mini-skirt flouncing around the tables, I could see my motorbike parked below, I was a happy man, loose on the land and having an absolute ball!
Here is "Seagulls", she may still be there but even if she's not, the seafood is fantastic. 
Saturday night back at the campsite was somewhat quieter, we went to the main tent for the prize giving but we were not involved except for Frank who got a prize for the oldest rider, well done my buddy!
Who at any rally has not seen Frank rolling his own smokes? Often he has been asked for some of those by younger people who think he is rolling something more interesting!
I was up early Sunday morning, because I was sleeping on the ground! It was bloody cold at 03h30 and I stuck my head out of the tent, mainly because I wanted to straighten my legs. I lay on my back and looked up at the stars which were incredibly clear and bright, as I lay there contemplating our universe and my place in this massive spectacle I thought "Ah fuggit." and went back to sleep for a while.
The sounds of others packing their stuff reminded me that I must have slept for a little while and I made my way slowly to the ablution block and then to the CMA coffee tent for a cup of hot deliciousness, even though it was Ricoffee.
By the time I left the site it was 06h50 and I was looking forward to a different, if slightly longer way home, I wanted to take Janet for lunch so I had five or six hours, plenty of time to explore.
The temperature was 5,5 degrees celsius as I roared out of the small town, I was happy and looking forward to the day, I will tell you about this and my suggestions for the CMA to improve their rally in my next post - happy man signing off.

2 comments:

Trobairitz said...

Ominous clouds in the sky, but it sure looked like some fun riding. Pretty scenery too.

the rider said...

Actually Brandy on Saturday the weather was pretty lousy, we had a bit of rain during the night and it got very cold. Great scenery down that way, lovely roads.