Mohicans sleep over

I haven't posted anything for a while, we haven't been anywhere on the bike because it has just been too hot. This Saturday, however we will be heading out to Plaasmol on route 45 for the Mohicans jol.

This will be the second one, I missed the first one because I rode through to Margate in Kwa Zulu Natal for Africa Bike Week last year.

Hopefully there will be quite a bit of support from the Meeulanders for this, I will be leaving from Juffroeshoogte at 14h00 to head through. I am sure there will be good support from Capetown riders too, I will write it up with photos later - see you there!

Swartland Charity Rally

Last Saturday I decided to pay a visit to the annual Swartland Charity rally in Moorreesburg which is a little farming town only some 80kms away. Over the years it has grown in popularity and although it is not strictly a motorcycle rally the farming community welcomes us as long as we behave ourselves. Indeed the bikers make up the majority of the attendance so I doubt that it would be very successful without us.

Again it was incredibly hot last Saturday, Daan and Beverley had gone through on the Friday and were camping over on Saturday night as well,

besides them and myself, six other Meeulanders arrived on Saturday and I saw quite a few of the other local clubs represented as well as a very big contingent from several different Capetown Clubs. It was a good place to meet and greet old friends and make new ones, the beer was cold and the bar was doing a roaring trade in the stifling heat.

 

Stefanie, Johlene and Kathy, all Meeulanders seek shelter from the heat and in the second picture some Capetown friends including (on the right) Rob and Isobel of Odysseus whom we met at the B.E.A.Rally and then again at the Bikers Ride against Farm Murders run.

 

The stalls area appeared deserted but I think people were sheltering at that time and did their shopping a bit later, there was good food on offer from Hamburgers and boerewors rolls to spitbraai lamb and potjies so nobody went hungry, and believe me those farmers know their potjies. A great looking oxtail came out early but I waited..........and waited for the offal pot to be ready.

Most of the action took place here in the shade, there was a concourse d'elegance and a good disco on the go. Not sure if they went well together because the crowd was kicking up quite a lot of dust!

 

The food preparation area must have been hell! The biggest pot in the foreground was the offal pot and the other was the oxtail, then there were the two lamb spit braais at the back.

I kept on bothering this guy, "Is it ready yet?" but it was worth the wait, even if a little expensive at R70 and quite tasty though perhaps a little too "clean" for my personal taste. They have to please everyone though and I was very hungry by the time I ate.

This was made up of only the stomach, knuckles and feet where I prefer the use of intestines as well but I wasn't complaining and I think it sold pretty quickly.

Time to head for home before I got involved with too many beers, it had been fun but I was tired of the heat.

Anti Zuma Protest

 A lot has happened here in South Africa recently and although this is not a political blog it would be remiss of me not to comment, particularly as thousands of bikers have been involved in the country wide protests that have taken place.

Thanks to the actions of one man, two ratings agencies have downgraded South Africa to "junk status", this will have disastrous effects on the economy which has already been suffering due to the blatant corruption and mismanagement of the ruling party, foreign investment will also be adversely affected. The country is in crisis and Friday last week saw the biggest nation-wide march, with people of all colours coming together under one banner; "ZUMA MUST FALL" since the dawn of democracy in 1994.

There were protest marches all over the country and we west coast bikers met in Velddrif to do our small part.

 

I will let the pictures tell the story, estimates are that over 200,000 people were involved and as you will see it was not a racial event but a concerned South Africans event. Click on the pictures to see them full size. Several of the pictures were borrowed from facebook posts so I am unable to credit the photographers.

 

This photo shows just a part of the crowd in Capetown on Friday morning.

Where do bikers go after a hot day's protest action? Why to the nearest pub of course! Not to make light of a serious matter, but it was a very hot day for all concerned.

There are a lot of video clips posted to Youtube that are worth watching and will definitely give you an insight into just how many people got together. Just put in keywords "Anti Zuma protests" to have a look.

Where to now South Africa? Watch this space.

One possible positive aspect for foreign readers; South Africa is still a beautiful country to visit and your dollars and pounds will be worth even more here now, come over for a cheap holiday.

April breakfast run

I am continually both gratified and impressed by the members of the Meeulanders Motorcycle Club, which by the way is the oldest and largest motorcycle club on the west coast, established in 1997 (later in the year we will be having a twenty year celebration) and now with over forty members on the books.

The first Sunday of every month is the regular day for the breakfast run and again the April run last Sunday was an excellent affair, this was to be at the restaurant "De La Paix" which is adjacent to the Butterfly World at Klapmuts outside Stellenbosch and I had no idea of how many people to expect. Janet and I were the first to arrive at the meeting place; Juffroeshoogte just outside of Vredenburg at about 08h20, we ordered a cup of coffee and didn't have long to wait for the bikers to start arriving.

I had posted "Kickstands up at 09h00" on the "Whatsapp group" and by the time we were saddling up there were 16 members and 4 visitors on 12 motorbikes!

It was a lovely day for riding, warm and calm and I led the group out onto the R45 for the 88km stretch to Malmesbury, I set a fairly steady pace around 130km/h just enough to keep the group together and to stay ahead of the cagers. Unfortunately along this part of the ride Sampie and Kathy experienced problems and had to turn back, Daan the Road Captain made sure they were alright and told me at the tea break. It was a minor problem and they messaged me later that they had arrived home alright.

We stopped at a service station area for some to refuel, some to have a smoke and all to have some "tea".

 

Anton with Road Captain Daan

Melinda and Christo and their daughter in law

Metjie and Adrie

Jannie and Mike

 The ride from Malmesbury was much more interesting, we moved into wine country with the road undulating through verdant pastures and beautiful vistas. Unfortunately living where we do, we have to ride for an hour in any direction before we reach twisties so our tires tend to wear out mostly in the middle! Malmesbury to Stellenbosch is a joy, we merged into the traffic on the busy N1 for only a short time before taking the offramp that brought us to the restaurant.

Butterfly World is a very busy place, especially on weekends but the restaurant was not too busy and I had made a booking so they had the place reserved for us on the veranda.

Breakfast was good and reasonably priced and the beers were cold and afterwards everyone made their own way, Janet and I did the tourist thing as we had not been to Butterfly World before and I must admit it was interesting.

We left at about 13h30 and cruised home via Wellington and Malmesbury stopping for a cold beer and a leg/bum stretch at Plaasmol Bar just after Hopefield. It had been a very enjoyable ride and a nice morning out with good people, man I love being a biker!
This coming weekend is the annual Swartland charity rally at the showgrounds in Moorreesburg and I know that there will be quite a lot of Weskus bikers attending, see you there.