It is fast approaching that time of year when children all over the world receive toys and gifts from Santa and/or from friends and family. Every year bikers get together on the same day at the end of November to take part in a mass ride and to donate toys and gifts for children who are, through various circumstances not as fortunate.
Here in South Africa bikers all over generally get together on the same day to decorate their bikes with toys, join a mass ride to a central venue where the toys are collected and then they party. We are no different. For seventeen consecutive years from 1999 Janet and I rode down to Capetown to take part in the toy run until the W.M.A suggested that local clubs and riders might like to donate the toys locally and so the West Coast run was born.
So it was that around 10h00 on Sunday 24th November we gathered in Vredenburg for a club group ride down the road to Juffroushoogte where the mass ride was to start.
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| Daan, Road Captain and Bev |
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| Anton and Rinette |
Eventually sixteen of us rode together along to the start point, there were already a lot of bikers heading the same way and when we arrived the parking area was already crowded.
Charl, the owner at Juffoushoogte had offered free coffee to the bikers, but most of us headed for the bar, we had a few minutes before the ride.
Time to go and Etienne, Chairman of W.M.A calls the riders in for a briefing; "This is not a race, (which some ignored) stay together, ride in staggered formation and watch out for the short dirt road near the end venue, it was supposed to have been graded but is quite rough."
These photos of part of the group coming over the bridge into Velddrif were taken by Gerrie pieterse.
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| Over the bridge into Velddrif |
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| Us followed by Anton's Indian |
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| Daan and Bev |
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| Willie with toys on his BMW |
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| Parking up at the golf club |
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| The Golf Club turnoff |
This was the second time that the Velddrif Golf Club was used as the end venue and it is well suited, plenty of space and a nice bar and kitchen. There were also a few biker related stalls.
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| Roleyn, Janet and a young helper |
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| The trailer halfway though the day |
Officially there were 148 bikes on the run, most of which will have had two up, also many attended in cars so there were probably between 300 and 400 people. We certainly got the impression that it was a bigger event than last year although we did also notice that many people did not stay but left after depositing their toys.
It was a hot day but it was a fun day and it is good to see that it is growing, last year they counted 120 bikes. This year also there were a lot of Capetown registered bikes so that is also good news. Congratulations to the W.M.A committee and members for a well organized event, may it go from strength to strength.
Click on these pictures to see them full size and if you want to see the rest of the pictures please visit my facebook page "Braais, beers and bikes".
2 comments:
It was better than expected, with a bunch of guys going straight to the endpoint and not doing the mass ride. Great to see how bikers get together to get stuff like this done.
Yes Gerrie it was very well organized and very enjoyable. I noticed that a few bikes went before the mass ride and some passed us, also quite a lot who were in cars went first.
What I also saw was that quite a lot of bikers didn't stay, some dropped their toys off and left straight away, some stayed for maybe one drink but as you say bikers getting stuff done.
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