We show the colours at two different biker events

It is really hot on the west coast at the moment, this is always the case in January and February so we always limit our bike rides to coastal areas, this is why when Daan asked me if I was going to accompany them to the Freedom Road rally in Franschoek on Saturday 15th February, I immediately said "No!". I know what Franschoek is like in February and I do not like extreme heat so it was an easy decision.

Besides I reasoned; there's the Undaunted mcc 15th birthday bash on the same weekend and some of us have to "show the colours" there. They headed off into the shimmering distance on Friday morning and I met Murray at Juffroushoogte at midday on Saturday. It was still hot, virtually no wind and the beer was warm, some miserable sods had stolen the power cables overnight rendering the bar fridges useless. This is not an uncommon phenomenon in the New South Africa, but why there when we are desperately in need of cold beer?

We got back on our hot saddles and rode through to Pirate's bar in Langebaan which was on the way anyway, sort of. There, happily the beer was cold. The venue; "Schaaftplaas" is on a farm about 23,5kms from where we were so no rush, also the last 3,5kms is a dirt road for which my bike is not really suited, we would be taking it very easy. When we got to the start of the dirt road I suggested Murray take the lead as he was on a GS and could have sailed along but to him the letters GS stand for "Geen Sand" which in English means "No Sand" so he was happy to follow.

There were a few people there when we arrived and they continued arriving through the afternoon, I don't know the attendance figures but hopefully the Undaunted members were happy. Schaaftplaas is a very nice venue, well suited to large groups with a few cottages and they also rent out furnished tents, the club had things well organized with the only negative being the disco, and this is not just my opinion, it was a general negative. They were youngsters who had no idea about biker music and were happily playing very loud electronic "trans-type" for want of a better word, crap.

We all moved our chairs and tables out from under the tent into the shade of nearby trees where we could converse comfortably and take advantage of the slight breeze which made things a bit more comfortable.

"let's move our table outside too."

Cooler under the trees

Riders from Rebel Jack & Co

That's better

Some of the people had brought their own tents and were setting them up wherever they could find shade, this something we learnt from bitter experience; get your tent set up before you go and join the party otherwise you'll just be 'putting it on' in the early hours of the next morning!

Food and accessories on sale

The rent-a-tent village

 Well done to the President Etienne and the members of Undaunted, it was a well organized event, we stayed until the late afternoon and then headed for home, people were still coming in. On our way back to the tar road we passed another six bikes heading to the venue. It was still very hot, I saw 35,5 celsius on my readout.

In the meantime our intrepid team at the Freedom Road rally sent in photos, they were experiencing temperatures of up to 45 celsius but the site appeared to have a lot of trees for shade which is a big plus.

Not sure what's going on here?

Or here?!

By all accounts they had a great party too and it was good for Meeulanders to be represented at two different jols on the same day, well done everyone. Click on the pictures to see them fullsize.