The Beaulieu Motor Museum, Ryka's Cafe and the 6th Gear Supercar experience

We have just returned from a three week trip to the UK where we had a wonderful time visiting our son, our daughter, our son-in-law and our two lovely grandsons. What a shame that they are all so far away, the only option for us is to go and live over there, who knows? It could still happen.

Our family made sure that we had a good time with visits to Devon and Cornwall, a trip on the train down to Portsmouth for the day as well as many local pub meals to pile on the kilos!

One of the attractions that we visited was the fascinating Motor Museum at Beaulieu (Pronounced Byewlee) in spite of its French spelling.

The museum houses an incredible collection of old cars and motorcycles and must be worth an absolute fortune. In spite of the fact that this is supposed to be about motorbikes we are all still petrol-heads anyway and I just couldn't help but admire (and drool over) this V8 Shelby AC Cobra, this is not a replica or a kit car, it's the real deal!

There is an incredible collection of motorcycles and it would take up many pages to post them all here, I spent ages wandering around the exhibits;

Here is Mike Hailwood's racing Honda, things were different in those days - imagine what it must have been liking stopping that thing with drum brakes!

A beautiful AJS in absolute showroom condition.

A Norton and a Triumph 3TA, pretty much the same as those in my previous post on the Polar Bear run. If only the owner of that collection up in Nieuwoudtville could build himself a showroom he could make some money out of his bikes. We paid 17.50GBP each to get in, I don't even want to convert that to South African!

How's this for a comfortable looking sidecar? Not too sure that I would be happy travelling in it on anything faster than that old bike though!

Do you remember when these lovely Honda 750s came out? I was still in the Police in Rhodesia when guys used to come up visiting from South Africa and we saw these for the first time, what fantastic bikes they were! We were still riding BSA 650s and Matchless 500s, no match for the Honda!

We spent about four hours exploring the Motor museum as well as the Top Gear and James Bond exhibits and then headed home, very interesting indeed.

The following Sunday I went over to "Ryka's Cafe" just below Box Hill, which is conveniently close to where my family lives, and is the weekly gathering point for bikers.

The Bikers gather and bikes of all shapes and sizes are ranged in the parking area, many fast bikes in spite of the narrow, twisty country lanes and also many cruisers including the ubiquitous Harley Davidson.

I saw a nice couple of BMW R1200RTs, probably the ideal motorbike for the riding conditions, in my humble opinion anyway.

A new model Triumph Speed Triple, a lovely hooligan machine and probably well suited to the country lanes.

Here are the Harley Davidsons I mentioned, nice looking white-wall tyres but sorry guys, not my "cup of tea."

You also get the extremes like this seriously modified R6 and this very long chopper but most of the bikes that I saw were standard road bikes. A couple of things sprung to mind while I was wandering around this gathering;

1 - In South Africa most gatherings occur where liquor is on sale, Ryka's is only a cafe;
2 - There were no donuts on the tar! In South Africa there would have been plenty!
3 - It was a very quiet gathering. In South Africa there would have been the sound of revving engines.

In fact South African bikers would probably have to find a different gathering point every week, we are a lively, rowdy bunch and most times pretty noisy and I love it!

On a different note, but still related to petrol-heads, my family gave me a very special gift for past birthday and Father's day; A 6th Gear Supercar driving experience!

On that particular weekend it was taking place at a track just outside of Birmingham some two hours away from home, we left at about 11h00 so as to be there in time for our laps which were booked for just after 14h00. My son-in-law was driving a Ferrari but I had the magnificent, sexy Aston Martin:

I felt like I should have been wearing my tuxedo for the occasion! We did a familiarisation lap in an ordinary vehicle where we were shown the track, the brake points and the corner apexes and then we climbed into our cars for four laps driving in the company of an instructor who made sure that we kept the cars flat out!

It is a totally different way of driving and my first lap was a bit rubbish but I made up for it on the subsequent laps, I have a video recording of the experience which I reviewed and which I will try to post later, but in it I see that I reached 100 miles per hour twice on two short straights and I also overtook a Lamborghini just before one of the corners. What a thoroughly enjoyable experience and one that is not likely to be repeated in the near future, to drive a car that us mere mortals can only dream of - unbelievable!

After the laps, which seemed to be over way too quickly, we were taken for a "Hot lap" by one of the instructors in a Ford Focus RS and man did he show us how it should be done!

Not something that I will forget in a hurry!

Still in England

I'm still in the UK at the moment, returning home next week after which I will do some posting and man have I got some things to tell you about; from the weekly biker gathering at Ryker's Cafe just below Box Hill, the classic car and motorcycle museum at Beaulieu to the "6th Gear Supercar" experience where mere mortals get to drive three laps of a race track in the car of their dreams!

I drove the amazing and strikingly beautiful Aston Martin DBS, I was a bit rubbish on my first lap getting to know the car but my second and third laps were great and on a short straight I managed to get it up to 100 miles per hour, what an experience!

Please stay with me, I have lots of pictures to post and lots of news and I will catch up during the coming week, speak to you soon - in the meantime stay on two wheels, much better than four!

Polar Bear run 2011

We have just been on the fourth annual Polar Bear run and it was a jol of note! Des started the run in 2008 with Dan and the idea was to ride in winter so as to separate the men from the boys, the first one took us to Sutherland in late August in the Northern Cape and although it was "this cold" the weather was fantastic! 2009 Des included the women in the run, back to Sutherland but earlier in August, still the weather was wonderful and all that came out of that run was the strict rule; "No more women on the Polar Bear run!"

2010 saw us heading to the Karoo Saloon on the R62 just short of Barrydale and what a party that was! Still excellent weather though. This year Des thought; "Right, stuff it, this time we ride end of July - the weather's gotta be shit then!" Up until the weekend the weather was absolutely terrible!

08h30 Saturday morning the bikers gathered at the garage in Velddrif under clear blue skies, all eager for the coming adventure.

A couple of the guys got into the spirit of the ride by having special hairstyles done.

Frank, Nicky and Dave discussing how cold it was. Dave followed along in his car as BUG (Back Up Guy.)

Every year there is a contingent of dirt bike riders who make their own way to the final destination by way of the most interesting roads that they can find, we crossed paths briefly at Clanwilliam and then met up later in the afternoon at Calvinia.

I led the ride out of Velddrif along the coastal road towards Eland's Bay, through Liepoldville at a leisurely pace so as to keep the group together and as we were not in a hurry we cruised at around 120kmh so that the cruisers could keep up. We pulled into the West Coast Hacienda at about 11h00 for a very good buffet breakfast.

It was a good breakfast and a nice ride but the road is quite badly pot-holed and riding towards the rising sun makes it difficult to see the holes in the road, by the time we were ready to leave the sun was high and warm and I knew that there was going to be some "low flying".

The cruiser boys, here's Freddy riding out, were going to be left to their own devices, next stop the garage at Van Rhynsdorp some 110kms away.

It's 30kms to the N7 on a lovely road, everyone pulled into the garage in Grafwater but I had enough petrol so I carried on followed by Frank and Dave. Just before the descent to the N7 at Clanwilliam there is what seems like a never ending right hand sweep, tight but predictable and done fast it is a real joy - so that's what I did! The N7 is a very nice road although a bit boring so I did it at between 160 - 180kmh hoping that I would spot the speed traps before they caught me and I arrived at the garage some fifteen minutes before everyone else.

Although it was by then quite warm, a cup of coffee went down well, now it was the fabulous "Van Ryns Pass" 288metres up to Nieuwvoutville and our next stop.

I made up number ten in the line of fast bikes heading up the pass, the cruisers made their own way up after us and what a ride that was, just pure exilleration diving into the tight uphill hairpins and sweeps in a good formation - fantastic stuff!

We lined the bikes up outside Protea Motors and Tinus, the owner opened the place up and showed us around his amazing collection of bikes.

Some tongue-in-cheek but mostly a very serious collection indeed!

Unfortunately the place is too small, the bikes are crowded against each other under covers and apparently this was only about half of the collection, the rest was in another warehouse!

Most of the bikes were runners, Tinus started quite a few of them up for us.

A 1920 "James" in unrestored, original condition - one of only three in the wotld!

We spent almost two hours there, it was fascinating biker porn. Tinus doesn't sell these bikes, he only buys them and usually more than one of a kind if he can so that he has spares.

We left happy and impressed after telling Tinus that he should have a big museum next to the main road where he could charge R50 per person to have a look at his wonderful collection, it must be worth millions!

By then it was beer time so we headed down the road to the attractive old hotel where the beers were icy cold and they sold the most delicious "Kerry vetkoek".

How do you explain "Kerry vetkoek"? A vetkoek is a ball of light dough fried golden brown and crispy on the edges filled with curried lamb, a South African staple it is absolutely delicious!

It was only another 67kms to Calvinia which obviously took virtually no time at all and there we met up with the dirt road boys who had just arrived. We got settled into our rooms, parked the bikes around the back and got the party started.

Freddy, Des and Frans enjoy a drink together and after everyone was settled it was time for the first item on the agenda; the "Bokdrol spoeg competisie"! Literaly translated this means "Buck turd spitting contest" and is a peculiarity of the Karoo area, probably because there is not much entertainment so it has to be invented!

The hotel owner had kindly collected the "ammo" for us, little dried pellets of buck shit! This was to be a first for me and I gathered from conversation that the  idea is to keep it in your mouth for as short a time as possible because it tends to go soft again! So quickly in the mouth and just as quickly out again.

Some guys were pretty good at it, keep the beer close by and don't even think about e-coli!

It was a good laugh, most of us couldn't get further than a couple of metres.

Some guys didn't enjoy it all that much!

Some, like young "Kettings" put everything into it, but the winner was....

Frans from the West Coast chapter of the M.O.T.H riders - give that man a beer! He won a meal for two at a nice restaurant, that should get the taste out of his mouth.

The party moved to the bar where Frank got up to his usual tricks, snuggling up to young ladies, not sure how he does it!

He awarded this young lady, a local policewoman, his Polar bear badge and declared her an honorary Polar bear for which he received his reward;

a cuddle, just look at him enjoying himself! Then it was time for the prize draw and Dan had to do the Polar Bear;

Ten minutes like that for a sponsored prize! No trouble for tough SA bikers, next was the "Fear factor" challenge and Dave's number was drawn; Eat the eyes and tongue from a roasted sheep's head;

No problem for most of us but Dave hadn't done it before, he made a good go of it though and won a sponsored meal for two at the West Coast Deli and Bistro where I know they serve better meals!

I stood back long enough to be polite and then dived in, I couldn't wait to get at the "sweetmeats", the brains, Dave wasn't having anymore.

Look at these two old biker scums! This pretty much characterises the annual Polar Bear run, cameraderie.

They closed the bar at 02h00 by which time we had all pretty much cleaned it out anyway, it was a fantastic party and we managed to get an hour or two sleep before we had to be up for breakfast.

We had a good buffet breakfast and guys started making their own way back from there with an arrangement to meet at the West Coast Hacienda for a beer.

Jean's Suzuki, way's to beat the speeding fine number 3; mount an Irish registration plate!

"Fast Freddie" wins "Character of the Polar Bear run" for the second year, and what a nice character he is.

We all just made our own way from there, a bit of a slower cruise than the day before, cool weather but very enjoyable and I was at home in time for lunch. Next year is the fifth annual run and Des wants to plan something special, I will be there for sure.

My friends I will be away from this blog for the next three to four weeks, bear with me, we are going to the UK to visit our family, I will update when I get back.