Polar Bear run 2010, part 2 - the party

By the time we got settled, and by that I mean like slinging some of my luggage on to the bed of my choice, it was just about half past two and I could hear good rock and roll music coming from the bar! Some of the guys were already settled in, Des and a couple of them spoke about riding 12kms to Barrydale for a beer but as Dick said; "The place is good, the music is lekker and the beers are cold, I'm not going anywhere." I had to agree with him on that and once we made our intentions known everyone decided to stay.

As the afternoon progressed and the sun sank quickly behind the mountains it got quite cold, did we care? Hell No! Charmaine our hostess came around and took our braai pack orders for later and in the meantime pizzas and hamburgers were available.
Frank quickly got into the party mood and donned a colourful wig that he was to wear right through the night, and I do mean "Right through the night!" We organised for our hosts to play decent music and the party got started with the dulcet tones of ACDC blaring out of the speakers!
I don't know what it was, what caused it but Frank started jolling right from the start and there was no holding him back - not that we wanted to anyway, he was on a roll!
Our hosts; Stewart and Charmaine had the place well organised for us, including a huge bonfire of vine stumps which was soon roaring and keeping the guys warm.
I had carried a 6kg box of fresh mussels in one of my panniers and I cooked them up in a borrowed pot for the guys, soon they were all gathered around the pot enjoying the starter.

Time for the speeches after that, thanks to the sponsors of the event, thanks to Des for once again organising a wonderful weekend.

Des conducted the raffle and there were good prizes; meals at restaurants in Velddrif but the winners had to prove themselves worthy, the first one drawn was won by Malan who had to prove that he was a Polar Bear by keeping his feet in a bowl of ice water while holding a glass of ice water in each hand for five minutes, I just hope that the meal is good!

He took it in good spirits, but by the time the five minutes were up he was looking decidedly uncomfortable!

Freddie won the main prize and to confirm his eligibility he would have to ride up the road in the morning wearing only his helmet, boots and underpants! "No problem" he said, "I would do that anyway." We would see in the morning!

The party continued and suddenly Des was dancing amongst us wearing a dress! He was actually very well received, probably because of a distinct lack of females in the place.Frank continued to provide entertainment, he fancies himself as a pole dancer so I ended up having to braai our meat, we had really nice sirloin steaks, boerewors (sausage) and a good spread of salads which went down really well.

The "Three-must-get-beers" came on next, really look at this lot! Would you introduce people like this to your family? Hell Yeah!

In the early hours of the morning, Stewart the barman, who was well into the swing of things started trying to convey a message - we pretty much ignored him.

This was the last photograph taken with my camera at 01h20 and things were still on the go although most of the mob had retired for the night. I do know that just before 03h00 Charmaine was trying to get us to leave saying things like "You guys must leave now, we want to close up." Yeah, yeah, give us another round." then I went up and whispered to her; "If you want to get Frank to leave, here's what you must do......."

She walked over to Frank and said; "Frank.....fuck off now!" So he did. Frank has been thrown out of better places than that and has had that message many times.

What a night it had been, I climbed wearily into my bed and went unconscious............................