Reminiscing

Maybe it's a sign of withdrawal symptoms, but because I haven't been riding for a while I find myself reminiscing about some of my favourite roads and my favourite rides; like the R318 from Montagu to the N1 or the R326 from Stanford.

Cape bikers will know about the 46km stretch from Ashton to Swellendam, a wonderful high speed road with a good surface, sweeping bends and wide shoulders. I have ridden that road on many occasions but one ride sticks in my mind; we were on a run to the Buffalo rally in Mosselbay two years ago and by the time we had reached Ashton I felt that I had to open up for a bit, we stopped for petrol and I said to the guys that I was going to go ahead for a bit of a fast ride, we had been riding quite slowly because there were a couple of cruisers in our group and we agreed to meet in Swllendam for a beer or two.

Jim and Daphne were on a Triumph and he said he was going to ride with me and we set off, my intention was not to ride seriously fast I just wanted to enjoy the road and I settled into about 180kmh just enjoying myself when all of a sudden Jim flashed past me doing over 200! This was with a loaded bike with Daphne on the back, I was alone on my bike!

So I says to myself, I says: "Myself," I says, "There is no way this Pommie on a Triumph is going to leave me behind!" he is a Pommie, comes out from England every six months! So I set off in hot pursuit, what a ride! We sat nose to tail for the whole way doing over 200s and ruined what up until then had been a fantasticaly economical ride.

How about the R62 from Montagu?

We have ridden that wonderful road often and stayed over at the "Country Pumpkin" in Barrydale, many of the Cape bikers will know about the amazing breakfast at the Country Pumpkin, if you arrive on a bike you get a free sherry and a free coffee before you leave and Dereck, a biker himself has a selection of badges for sale to bikers.

There is also that cool biker bar, the Karoo Saloon just before Barrydale; we arrived there one late afternoon and the place was full of bikers and there was some serious rock and roll music on the go, what an amazing vibe!

I will have more to say about that area, Dereck's "Country Pumpkin" is a special place for us because he rescued us when our bike broke down one day, not the big red machine! But that's another story.