Wheels on the West Coast

The "Cape Doctor", the strong south easterly winds that blow all of the smog away from the city was blowing hard again as we left Linda's house in Capetown this morning. It had been a good evening seeing old friends and meeting new ones and after a relatively late night I was keen to get on the road.

It was a lovely cruise with the wind pushing us from behind and I thoroughly enjoyed the West Coast road for change, very little traffic at that time of the day and we pulled into the Engen One Stop Wimpy at about 08h30 for a very welcome "Farmhouse breakfast".

We had about an hour at home before we were due to meet up with the guys at the West Coast Mall, this gave me enough time to drink a beer and give the big red machine a bit of a clean up.

We arrived shortly after 10h00 and it was good to see that there were already quite a few bikers there, more arrived while we were meeting and greeting.
This VW trike arrived, these people had been on the toy run in Capetown last week and featured in one of the photographs - they were to lead us down to the West Coast school just outside of Saldanha where the "Wheels on the West Coast" festival was being held. Two very nice Suzuki Boulevards, lots of chrome to keep clean there! We saddled up and all fell into a staggered formation for the short ride down to the West Coast School and it was a very impressive convoy of about thirty bikes that pulled into the school grounds.
We all rode slowly around the field and parked in a group so that the people could walk around and admire all of the bikes.
Then it was time to deposit our toys into the back of the Vredenburg Yamaha van, these would be distributed later.
In spite of the fact that there were not so many of us, a really good amount and variety of toys was collected.
Div had trouble letting go of his teddy bear, apparently it had grown up with his family for a good many years, he walked around the vehicle for a bit and we had to convince him to let it go, set it free so that it could find some children to love. Bye bye Teddy, bikers are not always rough and tough, there is also a soft side.
The pile of toys grew and it was good to see how many there were from such a relatively small number of bikers. What good people bikers are, haven't I been telling you this all along? We wandered around for a bit, there were some really excellent cars and hot rods on display;
After that it was back home, we met up with a few of the guys later at the "Captain's Cabin" for a beer; Frank, Willie, Craig and Monica were there, we had a beer and then a good lunch.

Another very pleasant weekend.

I don't think that there is anything else on until the 19th December when there is a Snoek festival in Yzerfontein, a small fishing town approximately halfway between Saldanha and Capetown, we shall be going to that one but I'm sure we will ride the big red machine before then anyway. Stay safe and keep the shiny side up!