Siyabonga fun day

The day started well; with a bottle of JC Leroux in the spa bath, there we made our plans for the day and we discussed our upcoming two week bike trip in mid November. If you remember I said we were going to hire a Harley for one day, well I have shelved that idea and we are going to do the whole trip on the big red machine, that's what it's for afterall!

Now however I am thinking about heading up the west coast road to Vanrhynsdorp and then taking the R27 through Calvinia and Williston and heading across the Upper Karoo to Kimberley. The way back will depend on how long it takes to get there and also how many days we decide to stay. This is also an exciting part of a bike trip; the planning. I love sitting over a map sipping a beer and working out a route, preferably through unfamiliar country, it adds to the anticipation.

Today the local bikers supported the "Siyabonga foundation"; it is a type of hospice for aids sufferers as well as mentally retarded people and the terminally ill, and they held a fun day to help raise funds. We all met up at the bike shop in Vredenburg where we were able to have a beer. From there we all rode to Siyabonga which is just outside of the town and the parade of motorbikes caused a lot of excitement amongst the many children who were there, it was lovely to see them posing on my bike taking pictures of each other with their cellphones, just about every child had a cellphone!

We spent about an hour there entertaining the children, we had a look through the wards and were very impressed with how clean and tidy everything was, it is a sad place though, all of the patients are there because they cannot afford to go anywhere else and they need the help. I believe the bikers did their bit, but there was no bar there so it was soon time to leave.

We rode through to Velddrif and had a couple of beers and a lunch at the Riviera Hotel. After a nice ride I dropped Janet off at home for her kip and I went to the Drop Anchor bar, a biker bar in Saldanha for one more beer.

It was great to be out on the bike again, it seems like ages since we have been anywhere and I really enjoyed it even though the wind was blowing strongly from the south east. They say it is going to be even worse tomorrow, I think we'll just have a quiet day tomorrow with a lunch at Don's "Beira Mar" restaurant, I haven't tried the "espetada" yet, Janet says it is delicious and it certainly looked good when she had it last time; garlic butter dripping down the meat onto the rice and chips!