Welcome!

Welcome to my blog, these are the ramblings and musings of an (upper) middle aged biker and if you enjoy braais, (barbeques) beers and motorbikes then hopefully you will enjoy what Janet and I do; we do lots of braais, we drink lots of beer and we tour South Africa on our motorbike, which at the moment is a BMW R1200RT. Join us, read about what we do and please leave us your comments.



Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Day 3 and the ride home

I might have slept for an hour or two, there was a lot of engine revving going on and in the early hours a cold fog rolled over the campsite. Not only was I trying to balance on my mattress but I was freezing cold, hardly conducive to a good night's sleep!
When I stuck my head out of the tent flap after eventually giving up on the chance of any more sleep it was in that cold, grey pre-sunrise stillness, some people were already up and about and packing their stuff away, people were blearily stumbling around clutching steaming styrofoam cups of coffee and I decided that that was what I needed.
I made my way down to rally road and joined the queue outside one of the vendor's tents, and clutching a warm cup of coffee I chatted with a few friends, our breath visible in the cold morning air as we discussed the rally and the upcoming ride home.
The Lions club were running a breakfast stall and after a very tasty bacon and egg roll and a second cup of coffee I was good to go. Back at the tent Frank was up and about and we chatted as I packed my stuff, he was not in any hurry as he was going to visit friends in Capetown, I had a lunch date with my lady and I was looking forward to the ride!The first part of the ride is through some spectacular countryside over Silvermine and the "Ou Kaapse weg" (Old Cape road) and the traffic is not as heavy on a Sunday morning so I was able to enjoy it. It is pretty much all over though as you ride down into the suburbs and then through Capetown and out onto the West coast road.I stopped over to visit my buddy Dave who was injured nearly two years ago in a motorbike accident on our inaugural Polar Bear run, he is still battling with his leg and has some more operations scheduled, he's a tough old biker and it was good to find him in good spirits. We chatted over a cup of coffee and then I was back out on the home straight.
The ride home was great, the weather was perfect and we had a very pleasant lunch at Driftwoods restaurant in Langebaan. After that I was pretty well shattered and really looking forward to my bed, it had been another great rally weekend with a great bunch of people. I will keep rallying as long as I can but I will get another mattress before the next one!
Stay safe friends and stay on two wheels, it's the best way to go!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Having witnessed you on your tiny mattress - go look at Cape Union Mart Canal Walk - they have some better options there - a little pricey - but probably worth it !
Looking forward to "Ride The Beast" at HBYC
Cao
Dick

the rider said...

Thanks Dick, I am definitely going to investigate a new mattress before the next rally, and cost be damned!