Vlakvark Rally

This weekend saw the (third??) annual "Vlakvark" rally at "Vlakvarkgat" just outside of Saldanha and Vredenburg on the R27, it's not so much fun going to a rally which is only 20 minutes from home, but I went along for a look anyway. It is difficult to translate "Vlakvarkgat"; Vlak means "shallow", a Vark is a "Pig" and a Gat is a "hole", so "Vlakvarkgat" may mean; Shallowpighole.?! Whatever!

What made the afternoon the most enjoyable for me was the fact that the Velddrif based club the "Kreefsmokkelaars" were out in force, I think there were ten of them and they were on a roll! The name means "Crayfish smugglers or poachers" and they lived up to their name!

Des was on his beautifully converted 1986 R80 "Police" bike, complete with radio, siren and blue light and he was apparently in hot pursuit of the poachers all the way from Velddfrif!

Jean, the President had converted his bike into a real "Weskus" rat bike and had arrived wearing a helmet that was probably not DOT approved!

Just look at that exhaust system, there are bunches of "bokkoms" (the West Coast speciality dried mullet) hanging from the bike, there is a huge Abalone shell built into the frame and there is a plastic crate attached to the back of the bike with cable ties!
I looked inside the crate and there were two live crayfish! Obviously destined for the braai later that night, but do these guys live up to their name or what?!
It wasn't long before other rally goers had spotted the bokkoms and were offering to buy them, Des just gave them away but he could probably have made some money if he had brought a couple of bunches along!
Whenever the Kreefsmokkelaars are at a rally you can be sure there is going to be a lot going on!
I love the smell of burnouts in the morning! No rally is complete without the noisy burnout.
The tyre smoke lends an ethereal quality to the festivities, I spent a bit of time wandering around meeting old friends and greeting local friends. There were three bars on the go and because it was a hot summer's day and there were a lot of bikers around, they were all doing a roaring trade.
Our favourite rally chef; Dalton was there and it was good to see him again, I hope that he is going to be at next week's Beaver rally. It being a rally so close to home there were plenty of local riders around. After greeting my friends I wandered over to the pool area where the wet tee shirt competition was taking place, this type of thing does not really interest me but I thought that I was obliged to do some objective reporting.
Some girls are just way more sporting than others and are prepared to lift the wet tee shirt up, this gives them a major advantage with the judges!
After that it was back to the bar for another beer, Jean still hadn't taken his crash helmet off,
and Des appeared to have found himself a rally "Bokkie"! It was a jol and it was good to see that the attendance appeared to be way up on last year, maybe this one will be a success? I certainly hope so because the organizers had gone to a huge amount of trouble.

Frank and I are hoping to get on the road at about 12h00 on Friday, Danny (from the Phoenix Bar) is hoping that he will be able to join us so hopefully there will be a few locals attending the Beaver Rally, I will keep you informed. Aren't bikers good folk? Ain't life a jol?