Beaver Rally 2014 - part two, recovery

I obviously slept because someone woke me; "Hey Engelsman, wake up!" - "Waddayawant?" "Come, we're going for breakfast." I crawled awkwardly out of my small space and got to my feet, my mouth tasted like a hobo had been sleeping in there and had left his blanket behind. I stumbled bladderfully to the ablution block, already the camp site was active, it was just after 05h00!

Mercia appeared to be having as much trouble surfacing as I had.

Back at the camp we discovered that Frank wasn't in his tent, this is not unusual and as I headed off in search of a cup of coffee I expected to find him still in the main tent finishing off the last of his cane and coke.

On my way back I found him, he had been trying to find his tent, stumbling around in the dark and had been adopted by some kind strangers, he assured me he was alright and he was obviously in no condition to ride so he said we should go on without him, "Leave me, I'll be fine." the kind strangers seemed happy to have him there so I left him.

We had a very enjoyable ride, the weather was perfect and the wind that had plagued us yesterday was gone. We cruised the lovely R62 through to Barrydale for a very welcome breakfast at the "Country Pumpkin", rejuvenated we gathered outside,

some of the guys talked about maybe carrying on to "Ronnie's Sex Shop" but that was another 20ks further so I suggested a stop off at the "Karoo Saloon" and as a few of them hadn't been there before we decided to have a beer or two there.

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 There were four Victory cruisers parked outside, the first time that I have seen any of these on the road, very imposing looking bikes.

The Mohicans gathered for a beveridge at the saloon. From there a quick ride back to the camp and on our arrival we discovered that Frank was still not in his tent, I went off to buy a beer and to see if I could find him, he wasn't with the guys I had seen before but one of them thought that he had headed off to the other side of the camp. I eventually found him with a couple of friends, Bonnie took me aside and said "You must please take him with you now." almost pleading.

I managed to get him back to the camp but it was a struggle, as soon as anyone expressed an interest he wanted to go over and join them, he wasn't around for much longer but the old boy has certainly got staying power, he'll out party any youngster!

We were not to see him for about five hours after that, meanwhile we went back to the main tent where the games were about to take place, I chewed another beer or two but the excesses of the previous night were catching up on me.

The Mohicans won everything! Wessel won the shackle throw and the team beat all comers in the tug-o-war, way to go guys!

 Eduardo, Alex, Van and his young lady and me - what you don't see in this picture is that I didn't have a drink in my hand! Couldn't face another beer and my whisky was finished, the liver is evil and must be punished!

Frank surfaced and joined us, many miles and many rallies under our belts and long may it continue.

We sat through the prize giving, none of us won anything else. I was surprised to hear that it was the 35th Beaver rally, I had no idea that it had been going for so long, this had been my second but you can rest assured that I will be back next year, 636 party animals attended this one and it had been a blast.

By 22h00 I was finished, I crawled into my tent and got as comfortable as I could on the narrow inflatable mattress, it took a long time to get to sleep but I relaxed. Some idiot was cruising around the campsite stopping here and there to rev and backfire his bike, at one stage he was so close that the air inside my mattress vibrated with every bang! I slept eventually.

To be continued......