Welcome!

Welcome to my blog, these are the ramblings and musings of an (upper) middle aged biker and if you enjoy braais, (barbeques) beers and motorbikes then hopefully you will enjoy what Janet and I do; we do lots of braais, we drink lots of beer and we tour South Africa on our motorbike, which at the moment is a BMW R1200RT. Join us, read about what we do and please leave us your comments.



Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Supporting a good cause and our own blue light escort

It has been a while since my last post, normally I'm better than this at keeping up dated but it just seems like not much has been happening. Janet says I must post some reminiscences from past rides and heaven knows there are enough of those! Maybe I will dig out some of the old photos and scan them in, that should keep me busy.
Last week I got a text message about a local awareness ride on Saturday starting in Saldanha and ending at the sports ground in Vredenburg to bring attention to the scourge of gender-based violence, "as many motorbikes as possible please" So I thought "Yes, I'm in." a good cause and something to write about.
I was there bright and early in spite of the very heavy fog, perhaps it was the fog that put the others off because there were only four bikes, very disappointed in the west coast biking fraternity I was! Plenty of guys attended in souped-up cars and it was quite a long procession that eventually headed out, we were at the front with a large contingent of Traffic Cops who seemed to be having fun with their blue lights and sirens.
We rode through Saldanha with everyone making as much noise as possible and then onto the Vredenburg road where we had to stop for a while for the Traffic Cops to sort out a minor fender-bender involving three of the cars who perhaps got a bit too enthusiastic!
Then it was down Vredenburg's Saturday morning main street with two Police vehicle clearing the way and into the parking area outside the magistrate's court where we were joined briefly by a guy on a nice white Hyabusa, he didn't stay long though.
The marchers assembled, first the women with the banners and then the Minstrel band and the idea was that they were to march all the way back along the main street to the sports ground,
 and that we were to ride behind them! We explained to the organisers that our clutches would be fried by the time we reached our destination so they made another plan, "Okay the Traffic Officers will escort you to the sports ground first then."
And so it was that three Traffic department vehicles with blue lights flashing and sirens blaring escorted three motorcycles all the way back along the main street through Vredenburg's Saturday morning crowds to the other side of town. Very cool! I peeled off after that and headed for home, it was time for a beer and something to eat and it was a lovely sunny day after the fog had burned off, more riding to be done.
I picked Janet up just before 12h00 and we rode around for a bit before deciding that it would be lunch at "Modo Mio" restaurant in Paternoster, it was quite a while since we had been there and the food had always been good.
I suppose if you're going to drive a "cage" then it might as well be a Jaguar convertible! Two nice modes of transport there.
That was my lunch, the first time I've had steak wrapped in bacon and then fried, lovely vegetables and the chips were good, it was nice enough but I won't have it again.
Janet had a pizza of which she ate only half and as I don't eat that sort of thing the other half had to be given away, it wasn't as good as the one she had at "Van Louveren" wine estate in Bonnievale, that was the best pizza Janet has ever eaten and it's going to take a long time before she finds one to match it. It was a pleasant enough lunch washed down with some cold Sauvignon Blanc and the ride home was via the "Phoenix Bar" in Vredenburg again, still not officially open but I had a game of pool and a beer.
All in all a very good day out on the big red machine and it looks like the weather's holding out for the public holiday!

No comments: