The Viper lounge and the Buffalo bar

Just to open here is another picture out of Africa, again I'm not sure where. This is quite ingenious but it all seems to be tied together with wire so I'm not sure it's all that safe, not that he's going to be doing any high speed riding!

We managed to get a really good day out on the big red machine yesterday, it was another of those glorious mid winter balmy days and we took full advantage; we met up with Frank at the Engen One stop on the R27 and while we waited I had a cup of coffee and Janet had a hot chocolate, both of which the Wimpy does particularly well. I also took the opportunity to check my tire pressures, just as well - the front was 1,7 instead of 2,5. We have a problem with the service station tire pumps, they do not fit easily onto motorcycle valves so we have to use valve adaptors, mine stays in my jacket pocket now because I had a serious problem once before when the air pump let the air out of the front tire instead of pumping it up!

It was lovely and warm as we pulled out onto the R27 and pointed our bikes in the direction of Capetown, we had not had a fixed destination and after a brief discussion decided to go to the "Viper bar" to check out the lunch menu.

It was an enjoyable and uneventful cruise along the rather boring west coast road, the cars and trucks all obligingly moved aside for us as we swept up behind them and I always acknowledge that with a wave of my left hand. We passed several groups of bikers heading up our way and most acknowledged our brotherhood with a wave or a flash of the headlight, all that is except three guys on Harleys! Why they don't greet other bikers on the road is a mystery, now if I recognise that the approaching bike is a Harley I don't bother to wave.

After an hour's ride we pulled into the car park in front of the bar which already had quite a lot of bikes, mostly Harleys!

It was good to see that people gathered to admire the BMW in amongst all of the Harleys! In this bar the sport of choice is MotoGP and we watched some excellent racing with Rossi pulling off an exciting win.

The lunch was good, my 500g pork spareribs with chips and salad was R68 (about USD8.50 and about GBP5.60 - good value, even by our standards.) Janet and Frank both had bangers (Pork sausages) and mash and gravy at R40 each which they both declared was delicious, so like Arnold "We'll be back!"
I was approached by a guy after lunch who asked "Whose is the BMW outside?" and when I acknowledged it was mine he asked if he could sit on it because it looked so comfortable and he was thinking about changing his, I went out with him and he had a huge Road King parked next to the BMW. He swung his leg over the bike and sat down and I could see he really liked it, a woman on the veranda immediately said "Oh no you don't, you're not getting another bike!" Poor guy, women just don't understand.
After a very pleasant couple of hours we saddled up and took a short ride through to Dave's house for a cup of coffee and a chat, he is still suffering from the motorcycle accident last September and now has to have some teeth removed which were pushed up into his sinouses, he is walking better with a crutch but will ultimately have to have a knee replacement. He's a tough biker though and still talks about biking.
Back on the road and we hauled it towards the setting sun, I hope the traffic cops had all gone home by then! At Vredenburg we pulled off outside the Buffalo bar, another biker friendly place that I mentioned in an earlier post for a last beer before going home.

They had done a big seafood pot for lunch and were charging R10 a plate and it must have been good because one of the patrons was on his fourth plate when we arrived! One beer became a couple and we got out of there before things got out of hand, it had been a really good day and we were both tired and happy as we put the big red machine into the garage. Only 255kms riding but really good to get out on the bike.