X Force Africa

One of my American blogger friends; John from North Texas bikers III (Check out his cool blog at www.jjskewlstuff3.blogspot.com and give him a "Howsit?") posted a picture of his patch vest and I liked it so I thought it would be a good idea to show mine. The idea was that ex servicemen would join and show this patch, the wounded lion crouching on a shield was the emblem of the Rhodesian Police Force - the BSA Police, at the moment there are not many of us wearing it but Dave, who started the group has just had a request from an ex serviceman friend in Australia who would like to start up there. The only other member moved to the UK and we don't know if he's riding with the patch anymore, I suppose you could say it's a pretty select group!

Dave and I rode together on the first Sutherland run and that was a "mass ride" of ex Force members! We named it "X Force Africa" so that it would be open to ex servicemen from different countries in Africa, especially South Africa so I don't think it will be too difficult to get members once we actively start advertising. Perhaps when Dave's knee problems are over and he gets back on the road on his trike we will do some recruiting. The front of the jacket is covered, in a rather haphazard manner, with all of my rally badges and perhaps what I need to do is sit down and re organise all of them - that would be quite a job! Some of the badges go back to the early eighties and we South African bikers wear our patch jackets with pride. I will definitely be wearing mine to Sturgis next year.

I am happy to report that Frank and I managed to get the FA Cup pool game going again on Friday afternoon and I managed to secure a 6 - 2 win, he won the first game and the last one. It's always a very pleasant afternoon even though there's quite a lot of bad language going between us, casual observers would sometimes think we are deadly enemies!

We haven't done any riding this weekend, one of the local clubs - The Meeulanders - had a breakfast run to Hout Bay this morning but we were unable to accompany them as we had a friend's birthday to attend. This afternoon Janet and I will get on the bike and ride through to the "Phoenix Bar" to meet up with Frank and the boys when they get back.

Next weekend is the Freedom Road rally in the little coastal village of Stilbaai (Quiet Bay) which is a good 400km from here, I have to work on Friday but I am going to try and get off early so that I can get going around midday, the guys will already be there and will set up a camp so I will join them there. Looking forward to that. I'll tell you all about it.