Two great bike trips planned

There are two bike trips coming up now; the Buffalo Rally in Mossel Bay this coming weekend and the Easter weekend ride to East London. The Buff is a 500km ride which I am doing alone, mainly because Janet doesn't particularly enjoy rallies, but also because she is extremely busy at work with financial year end. My lovely woman lets me go off and act like old biker scum with my buds for a weekend four or five times a year, I think she recognises the need that a guy has to get out with his buddies and just tie the dog loose every now and then.

When I say I am doing it alone I mean without Janet, a good few of the local bikers are going to the Buff and I will meet up with them there. The only negative thing is that my old rally mate Frank is not going to be there, he can't make the Buff so I think it will be a bit of a subdued party because there are not many who can keep up with us.

Our Easter weekend trip to East London is now in the planning stage, the trip is more than a month away but this is what I really enjoy; the lead up to the trip, planning the ride and even though we have done this trip many times there are still things to organise, such as the route, Frank and the boys encountered five stop/go roadworks on the N2 on the way to the Freedom Road rally which cost them an hour! I want to avoid those at all costs, so we will take the R62 through to Outdshoorn, then Joubertina and join the N2 near Humansdorp.

I have been sitting with my map happily plotting our trip which is some 1295km, I have booked Thursday night at the Grand Hotel in Robertson so that we can get some 160kms of the trip under our belts on the first night, from there we ride through to Port Elizabeth where we will stay with friends Dirk and Sonja and then through to East London on Saturday morning where we will arrive mid afternoon.

We will enjoy quality time with family and friends for the weekend and then leave on Monday morning for the ride home, we have both taken the day off on Tuesday and Wednesday is a public holiday so we have plenty of time to get home without having to make a mad rush.

I am not going to book anything on the return trip, we will ride for as long as we feel like it and then we will look for a place to stay over, I'm thinking a caravan park chalet somewhere with a braai. I'm dying to try out my new ipod nano with the docking station on some chalet veranda with some chops on the grid.

Damn it's going to be good and you can bet I will tell you all about it, it's a great ride on some lovely roads and we can't wait to get going.