Breakfast run

I was free on Sunday, Janet had plans for things that she wanted to do around the house and I knew that if I didn't get away I would get roped into moving heavy things around. As luck would have it the Meeulanders had a breakfast run organised so I happily saddled up after kissing the little woman goodbye and thundered off to the meeting point at the Engen one stop.

It turned out to be a small group, we stood around drinking famous Wimpy restaurant coffee while we waited for others to arrive. Nearby a group of Harley riders had gathered and I went over to chat to them, they turned out to be a friendly bunch even though.................

They were six people on four bikes and they were going to have breakfast in Riebeek, man I was glad we weren't going there, the temperature was already in the high twenties and in that Riebeek valley it would be getting a lot hotter.

If ever I was to get a Harley, which is very unlikely, it would be this one. This cool dude was still smoking his pipe as he rode out.

You see, Harley people do wave! It was 09h30 and it didn't look like anyone else was coming, we were about ten people on six motorbikes and Frank was in his car (I'll explain why a bit later), time to get going.

It's not a long ride along the R27 to Velddrif, about twenty kilometres but it was a nice ride and I found myself shouting the lyrics to "Born to be wild" into my helmet. Div set up a fair pace on his Honda, I was behind him and I could see the others in my mirrors as we sped along through the warm summer morning, our destination growing closer in the shimmering heat haze, Man it was going to be a hot one!

Through Velddrif and along the road towards Dwaarskersbos and our breakfast destination was the "Soverby Lapa" which we had coincidentally visited the previous weekend;

It was still a bit early in the day and the place was not yet open as we lined the bikes up outside, but we didn't have long to wait.

It's a really picturesque spot and what was also good was that there was a gentle breeze coming in off the sea that kept the temperature down, it turned out to be a very pleasant morning. We got beers in hand, placed our breakfast orders and stood around talking crap, as bikers are often wont to do.

I mentioned that Frank was in his car and the reason is that two weeks ago returning home from the Snoek festival at Yzerfontein his beloved FJR high-sided him!

Apparently as he was approaching the R27 and luckily not going very fast his front wheel hit something slippery, the handle bars suddenly went into full lock and as the wheel hit dry tar again he was flipped over the bars to land rather ignominiously in front of an oncoming car.

The people in the car helped Frank up, he was more worried about his baby and they helped him pick her up as well. The damage did not seem too severe, luckily he did not have the panniers and top case on, there was a scrape on the front fairing, the wing mirror was bent and the rubber boot which was designed to protect the side of the bike had done its job.

We decided then and there to re-enact the accident scene with the help of a plastic motorbike, because none of us wanted to lay our bikes down in the sand!

 Frank always wears full leathers when riding and they were scuffed on the one elbow quite badly which would definitely have resulted in severe skin loss, his helmet was also grazed in two places. He got away with a few bruises, a cracked rib, a damaged ego and a scraped motorbike, his bruises are fading, his ego is rebounding and the insurance will fix the bike but it goes to show the value of ATGATT! The rib will heal eventually.

He is eagerly awaiting the return of his bike so that he can get back out on the road, we are going to the "Freedom Road Rally" in Stillbay in early February so it must be ready by then.

There was much light hearted banter and Frank is the kind of guy who can take a ribbing, we had a very pleasant morning and the breakfast was very good;

This is a word to all of the restaurant owners out there; you need to give bikers a good breakfast, if you do that they will come back and they will bring their friends and bikers often do breakfast runs, much more so than the poor people who have nothing to do with motorbikes, they stay at home and eat toast and have boring lives.
This breakfast was good and it only cost R38, we will be back.