Day Three - the ride home

Early Sunday morning Div, Willie and Johan were all packing their tents and gear, there was no sign of Frank even though I went and shouted next to his tent a couple of times. This is quite normal and often Frank's tent is the last one standing after everyone has left, he needs recovery time!

We had all just about finished our loading when Frank pitched up with rather bleary eyes and a cup of tea in each hand, "You guys carry on," he said "I'm going to hang about for a while and get my head right."

I felt a bit bad, he had waited for me on the way up but he insisted I get going, he is a retired divorcee - no one waiting for him and no train to catch so we saddled up and eagerly hit the road.

Willie took the lead, I was next with Johan behind me and Div bringing up the rear and we set off on the 400km ride, first stop would be the Wimpy in Riversdale for a good breakfast.

After the breakfast we decided that the next stop would be Worcester some 200kms further, Willie immediately set off at 120kmh and I was thinking "No way can I sit at this speed!" I was constantly decellerating behind him and after a couple of K's I wound up next to him and shouted "Willie, move it up to 140, this is too slow!" I dropped back to check that 140 was alright for Div on the Harley and he was happy so we set off at a slightly better pace.

It was a beautiful day, perfect for riding and the traffic wasn't as heavy as it was on Friday. The big machines ate up the kilometres and although I am pretty much a solo rider it was enjoyable being one of a tight group of four. I just relaxed and enjoyed the cruise.

The scenery is beautiful and for a good part of the way we were riding through the mountains, it is all very familiar countryside as we often ride it, but it is still enjoyable especially when the weather is that good.

Seeing as how we weren't doing any high speed riding I was able to experiment with photography and I found that if I put the camera strap around my right wrist I could keep the camera inside my jacket sleeve. Then when I wanted to take a picture I engaged the cruise control, opened the jacket sleeve and dropped the camera into my hand (this involves a bit of juggling) and I was easily able to operate the camera with my right hand. I was rather pleased with some of the photos, especially the one of the two guys riding behind me!

Here is Johan on the N1 highway just before the Worcester "One-stop", for some reason I was feeling very saddle sore by the time we were nearing our destination and I could see that I was not the only one as Willie stood up on his pegs ahead of me.

Willie on his BMW and Johan at the traffic lights just before turning into the One-stop, I had already made up my mind that I was going to have a couple of cold beers there.

After refuelling his Harley, Div agreed with me that a cold beer or two sounded like a very good idea - they went down very well even though they weren't all that cold!

After the break I suggested to the guys that if they didn't mind I was going to head off on my own for the last stretch, I felt like winding it up a bit and the 200 plus km stretch from there on is one of my favourite riding areas.

The roads are generally in pretty good condition and on a Sunday the traffic is not so heavy, I bade my buds farewell and wished them a safe ride and blasted away towards Saldanha revelling in the smooth and effortless power of the big red machine. Not a hell of a lot better than that!

I really enjoyed the day's ride, the round trip including a bit of riding in Stilbaai was 935kms and I can say with conviction that I enjoyed every one of them. I arrived home safe and sound and happy and took Janet to the Phoenix bar for a post mortem of the ride with the boys. Another very good Freedom Road rally and I will certainly go again next year, no one in our group won any of the prizes on Saturday night - the main prize was R10,000 cash! But no matter, that's not why we go on the rallies - it's mostly the jol and the cameraderie.