27th Annual Charity toy run

On Friday afternoon 66 motorcycles formed the mass escort for the funeral of Dudley and Caroline in Velddrif, testimony to the popularity of those two lovely people.

Sunday in Capetown saw the running of the 27th Annual toy run, my 12th consecutive toy run and what a great day it was.I took the long way round on Saturday and as you can see from the photo it was a beautiful day, here "Peter" the Teddy Bear, who was donated by our friend Tash, is sitting on top of the other toys contemplating the view of Hout Bay from Chapman's Peak drive. Aren't I lucky to be able to ride in such a beautiful country?

I spent Saturday night with Dick and Janet and on Sunday morning we met up with other friends; Patrick and his wife Pat and Allan to ride through to the Ratanga Junction car park for the start of the mass ride.

There are two starting venues and the riders converge on the Maynardville grounds where all sorts of entertainment and trade stalls, food and of course a huge beer tent is provided. Every year the run gets bigger and this year was no exception.The organisers claim that they have no accurate method of counting the number of bikes, but last year just over 27,800 toys were collected for underprivileged children. This year they were hoping for over 30,000 and from what I saw they must have achieved it.When I arrived to throw my toys into the trailer it was half full, the Ratanga junction group arrived first but it wasn't long before the second group arrived and after about an hour and a half, after first visiting the beer tent,

Frank had to throw his toys into the third of the smaller trailers, all of which were full to overflowing, there was a massive amount of toys. Most bikers took more than one but some just grabbed what was at hand;
Here Des contemplates throwing his stuffed sea horse into the trailer!
Dick and Janet enjoy a cold beverage at our makeshift bar counter. We spent a very festive couple of hours enjoying the music from the live band and the interaction with friends, our "bar" was situated at the entrance to the beer tent and as everyone would walk past during the course of the morning, we got to see all of our friends eventually.

Soon it was time to head for home, the halfway point was at the Viper lounge so we stopped for a quick beer there and then it was the R27 back to Saldanha, a good ride in the company of three other bikers who set up a fast pace, I hope there weren't any speed traps, I've had enough speeding fines for a while!

I was a good weekend out on the bike and I look forward to the next toy run.