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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.



Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Slangkop rally 2010 - day two

Four things came together and contributed to me waking up early on Saturday morning, a mere three and a half to four hours after I had slipped into unconsciouness; the sun was shining through the thin material of my tent, there was a continous noise of people talking, laughing and revving their motorbikes, my mouth tasted like a homeless person had slept in it and left his blanket behind and my bladder was full.
Damn, nothing for it but to roll off the rugby ball and head for the ablution block, toothbrush and toilet roll in hand. At least the weather was good, sun shining and no wind and a hell of a lot more people around too. No sign of Frank or Dick, I didn't expect to see Frank for most of the day. As is usual with him Friday is a huge party and then Saturday doesn't exist, I only expected to see Frank later that night.
After some brief cold water ablutions I joined the throng of people looking for early morning coffee and then went in search of food, something greasy was needed and I found it in a nearby stall; battered Snoek roe and chips! Snoek is the ubiquitous Cape delicacy; thyrsites atun and at this time of the year has long roe sacks which make a delicious snack fried in batter, that's it on the right of the picture.

Feeling much better I headed back towards my tent, they were announcing that the mass ride was to start at 10h00 and I felt like doing that, as I walked along I heard someone call me "Hey grootman (bigman) come have a dop with us!" A dop is a drink and my heart sank as I walked over to the bunch of Coloured okes who were camped nearby, they are friends from many rallies and we had had a great time the previous night;

A glass of Jack Daniels and water was pressed into my hand and I must confess that it went down very well, sort of like a nice tasting mouthwash and we chatted for a while but I extricated myself before they could refill the glass!
The mass ride was very enjoyable, not too many people and the road marshalls blocked all of the intersections so that we could ride on through. It was a fast ride down through the pass to Fishhoek and through Simon's town and back - wonderful stuff and such a picturesque area.

I ended up going for a ride on my own and had another seafood meal at a lovely place in Kalkbay and then returned to the campsite in the afternoon.

Rally road was bustling and the stalls were doing good business, it's a great place to stroll and meet friends. I wandered slowly along towards the main tent, stopping to chat every now and then.In the main tent the serious competitions were under way; which guy had the biggest stomach (luckily I don't qualify.....yet!) and the Miss cleavage, briefly interesting and all leading up to the main event, the lucky prize draw.Frank surfaced just before the main draw, Dick and Janet were also there and not one of us won anything! The entertainment was great and we all enjoyed the evening, we were all a bit quieter than the previous night though and it was just after 11h00 that we headed off to our tents, I was hoping for a bit of sleep before the ride home the next day - it was not to be!

1 comment:

Geoff James said...

Brilliant! Just like rallies in NZ, and probably anywhere else in the world. Middle-aged guys trying to re-live their youth with a Jack Daniels mouthwash and greasy breakfast to coat the liver.....

Live long and prosper :-)