Memories of Rallies past

It's winter time and although at the time of writing the weather is absolutely fantastic, so much so that we are going on a breakfast run tomorrow, it has been absolutely crap over the past two weeks. I have boasted to my American friends that here in South Africa we do get wonderful riding days throughout the winter so we don't have to put our bikes into storage or drain the fuel tanks or anything like that, we do get snow on the mountains which are some 200 to 250kms away and that does affect our daytime temperature but I don't think that there has ever, in recorded history been snow here in Saldanha Bay where I live.

I must admit we haven't been riding much, last Saturday we rode down to the little town of Darling which is only about 100kms away and visited the Darling Wine Shop where we bought some lovely Camembert cheese and six bottles of un-wooded Chardonnay, it was nice to ride with a destination in mind because for the most part we have just done local circular cruises and ended up at a local restaurant.

Tomorrow our club has its regular breakfast run and we are going to "Buffelsfontein" which is not very far but is interesting because we haven't been there before, trust me - I'll tell you all about it.

This afternoon I was going through old photos from rallies past, actually I was looking for a specific picture which I haven't yet found but I did find lots of interesting and amusing ones that I thought I would share, you might recognise them if you're a regular reader because most of them were posted years ago;

From the Beaver Rally in Heidelberg some five years ago, quite a long ride and we were offered the stables in which to pitch our tents, quite a comfortable place sheltered from the wind and with a thick straw ground cover, what a good rally that turned out to be!

This was at the end of the Cobra Rally in Worcester in 2009, you've all no doubt been there, you wake up to the sound of rain on your tent and you have to pack everything away wet and ride all the way home in the rain. It makes for good memories.

From the Slangkop Rally 2007, here Frank is with two lovely people; Dudley and Carolyn who both tragically passed away in a car accident, Rest in peace wonderful friends.

This was my tent at 02h00 on Sunday at the 2008 Slangkop rally, the wind came up so strong that it would have blown away if it wasn't for my luggage. Frank and I packed my stuff away and then while we were dismantling his tent it started to rain! We eventually left the site at 03h00 and it rained all the way home, we stopped at the Engen Wimpy near Langebaan for breakfast and it was still raining. While we were there dripping wet bikers arrived at regular intervals and as they walked in the staff were following them to their tables with mops. Again, that's what memories are made of isn't it? You can't ride a motorbike and not get caught in rain sometime.

Also at the Slangkop rally, this time in 2009 and I get to get a picture with some lovely biker woman, if you ride bikes you get to meet women like this; our friend Janet.

Slangkop Rally 2010, I was staggering bladderfully to the ablution block when these brothers shouted out "Hey Whitey, come over for a dop man!" A "dop" is a drink and in this case it was whisky, of course I joined them, the day has to start right doesn't it? Unfortunately the Slangkop rally is no more.



This was taken at the Venom Rally in Kleinmond in 2011, Frank needed to sit down during the early hours of the morning and I managed to talk this young lady into giving him a lap dance. He loved it.

I don't think there are any more rallies coming up before the end of October, the Beaver Rally in Montagu but if there are you can be sure I will tell you all about it, in the meantime stay safe and keep the rubber side down!