Bowling; an enjoyable afternoon and a weekend on the bike

We had an arrangement, you could even say an appointment with Joe and Annie and Dave and Nicky for the weekend which included us taking part in some bowling tournament which was organised as a fundraiser for the "Rollers Cricket Club" and the "Mowbray Bowling Club", both worthy causes to which I committed our attendance.

I should perhaps have consulted with Janet beforehand. There was no way that she was going to do any bowling, even though the Mowbray Club encouraged its members to walk barefoot on the green with their beer bottles in hand, an arrangement which seemed appropriate for her.

Janet had just yesterday been for her bi-weekly fingernail appointment and anyway ball games bored her, we would have to play without her. This we did, even Dave with his prosthetic left leg managed to bowl some good woods and with Joe as our "Skip" we had a good time but did not make it to the semi's, let alone the finals.

Six hours at the bowling club did not seem like such a long time, we had fun and it was good to see that it was not just an "old people's game", we drank many beers and ate really good hamburgers and boerewors rolls as we watched the finals from the wooden balcony, an enjoyable day and although it will not make me join a bowling club in a hurry I could see the attraction.

We had a wonderful early dinner at the "Ocean Basket", one of my favourites and my evening was made complete when I beat my friend Joe at cribbage two games to one, something that will bother him for ages.

Sunday morning we said our goodbyes and rode around to the Viper lounge for a look at the new Victory motorcycles for which they have just become the Capetown agents.

The big touring model is HUGE, it is bigger than the Goldwing 1800 and the Harley (whatever) but it feels well balanced, all the weight is low down and forward but still it feels very daunting, just the sheer size of the bike is quite intimidating.

That bike is not a new one, it is for sale at somewhere around R200,000 and it must be an amazing touring bike - go and talk to Dieter about it.

The dashboard is like an aeroplane, there are dials and lights all over the place and the handlebars reach far back from the front of the bike, it would be an interesting ride but I wasn't much impressed.

Go and check it out for yourself at the Viper Lounge, there is no doubt that it is a very impressive machine and it may just be what you are looking for.

The "Cafe racer" models were parked outside and were very nice looking bikes, I did not enquire about prices as obviously these bikes would not be any good for us!
After just one beer we headed out towards the N7, it was already feeling warm and we were looking for a good breakfast. As we joined the N7 we came across these guys involved in what is just another day at the office for them;

"I am a lineman for the county, and I work the main line." The helicopter lifted the guys onto the lines.

We watched enthralled as the helicopter moved the workers from one line to the next, many motorists stopped next to the road to watch as well. This job obviously requires a very skilled helicopter pilot but I am sure that there is no shortage of really very experienced pilots from both the South African and the previous Rhodesian bush wars.

From there it was a short 13kms to the little village of Philadelphia where we had a very pleasant breakfast. The only problem was that it was incredibly hot and there was no wind at all so we were absolutely swamped, within minutes of our beer being placed before us, with "muggies"/"miggies" - midges.
They get in everywhere, they try to get moisture from your eyes, mouth, nose, food and beer and so you end up eating lots of them, they also bite but you don't notice that at first - I ended up with lots of itchy sores on my arms the next day.
We did the tourist thing, checking out the shops which were crowded with Capetown visitors. As we moved outside to get on the bike there were people milling around muttering things like; "All the restaurants are full, I've checked - what must we do?" and still others, mainly women were saying things like; "Well let's drive through to Melkbos for lunch, it's not far."
Our visit was as a result of an article I had read in the Sunday paper travel supplement promoting the village and I assume that many of the visitors that day were there for the same reason.

The four restaurants and the arts and craft shops were really benefitting from the newspaper article, and good luck to them - I will just make sure that the "Cape Doctor", the south easterly is blowing a bit before I go there again.
I opted for the Coastal road, the R27 for the ride home just to get away from the oppressive heat and we blasted along at a comfortable 140 - 150kmh. It had been a wonderful weekend on the bike and by mid afternoon we ended up in  Paternoster for a cheese platter and a bottle of wine at "Modo Mio", a fitting end to a lovely weekend.