Rambling and reminiscing

I have been a bit slack about updating this blog recently but I haven't had much to write about, just not going to two of the recent rallies!

I am planning to go to the Buffalo Rally on the weekend of 19th March though, this is a rally that I first attended in 1982 when I was living on the East Coast and it was held in Port Elizabeth. In those days it was a lot rougher than it is today, bikers were a tough bunch and it wasn't long before the rally organisers had to find another town.

The Buffalo rally then moved around, it went to Maseru for a couple of years, then the God-forsaken little town of Aliwal North amongst others before ending up in the picturesque town of Mossel Bay on the south coast.

It has been there for a couple of years now in spite of occasional threats from the City fathers to ban it and I believe now the traffic cops breath-alyze bikers attempting to leave the rally site, if you are found to be over the limit you are not allowed to leave the site! This is all very well and good, but what happens if you are not allowed to leave the site on Sunday morning?!

A quick phone call to the wife; "Hi Babe, uhhh I think I'm going to be staying here at the rally for another day." and then you hope that the bar's closed.

I believe most of the objections to the rally staying in Mossel Bay came from the elderly or the geriatric residents who couldn't understand the noise of revving bikes or the hordes of leather clad revellers who took over all of the bars and restaurants, but the business owners have decided to overlook minor discretions in favour of the massive injection of cash into the town's coffers for one weekend a year.

So anyway I am going to give the Buffalo rally one more chance, it is a lovely 500km ride from Saldanha so I will have to get the Friday off work but that shouldn't be a problem, we'll see how it goes.

I am looking forward to a nice ride to Capetown tomorrow, we have an appointment with a specialist so we decided to go down on the bike. The weather is beautiful and we will meet our friends Rene' and Bronx for lunch and then a ride home, what a pleasure.

Whilst going through my photo albums I came across this old one from about 25 years ago, we were living in the then independant homeland of the Transkei in the Eastern Cape and I had recently bought the Yamaha 1.1, I imported the "Vetter Windjammer fairing" which, incredibly I fitted myself, (I say "incredibly" because I am not a mechanic-type person) and I used to "tootle" around the town with my kids, Christie and Simon on the bike.

Christie on the back and Simon on the front, probably not the safest thing to do but I was only riding slowly - I doubt very much that Christie would let my two grandsons ride on the bike like this today!

I will tell you about our ride, and our lunch tomorrow.