Africa Bike Week preparations, Mohicans sleepover and charity run - busy times.

One of the best parts of a long motorbike ride is, in my opinion the planning stage. Apart from the trip itself the planning gets the excitement levels along with the adrenalin rising, deciding what to take along, which way to go and where to stay overnight is key to the enjoyment of the actual ride and although I do not like to book overnight stops I like to have a daily destination in mind.

I am now in the planning stages of my 1650km trip to Margate on the Kwa-Zulu Natal South Coast at the end of the month, actually I am leaving home on Monday 25th April and I will be away for ten days in total; Africa Bike Week!

This will be the seventh consecutive year of this amazing event, started by the Harley Owners Group but open to all makes of bikes it takes place in the centre of the coastal town of Margate and is similar to the American style of rally.

 See My route here. Friends of mine have been over the years and have had excellent times and have recommended the experience to me, this will more than likely be my last chance to do this, I retire at the end of June and I do not think that finances will allow another trip of this nature. I have been incredibly lucky though in that an old friend, an old comrade from my Rhodesian Police days has offered me four days free accommodation in Margate and he will be organising a get together with a large number of old comrades who live in the area, what an event that promises to be with mates that I haven't seen in some forty odd years!
You can rest assured that I will document this adventure, although I am travelling alone I have no doubt that I will meet up with other bikers during the trip, I am really looking forward to this one!
Unfortunately whilst I will be away I will be missing a good local event; The Mohicans first annual sleepover will be taking place from 30th April, I just know that this will be a party of note, these guys and gals are party animals and it would be worth your while to take the trip up from Capetown for this one - I will definitely be there next year!
I'm off now for my regular weekly pool competition with Frank, last week he decimated me nine games to four, he was on incredible form and I battled to get my four games! I cannot let that happen this week.
Tomorrow we ride through to Moorreesberg for the Annual Charity run at the show grounds, a good fundraiser with a variety of food stalls and attractions, music and booze, many of the local bikers take their tents and make a party of it, see you there. 

We got the bike back! All is good

After finding what I surmised to be an oil leak on the bike I had it trailered down to Maxwil Trading in Kilarney Gardens and had a discussion with Claus, the owner. I told him what I had found and also requested the regular service for 110,000kms, he assured me that he would find the problem and come back to me.

After an anxious couple of days Claus called me on Friday to say that he had carefully checked the differential and the engine and there was no sign of any leaks! He had changed the oil in the engine and it was good and clean however the left front fork was leaking and both would have to be re-chromed and have new seals fitted. He quoted me the price to which I agreed and he would call me back when it was finished.

Eventually Claus called me back to say the bike was ready, he had taken it for a run and it had stood overnight and there were no signs of oil leaking anywhere. The service had been completed and the forks were now cean and tight.

My buddy Frank took me down to Capetown and I had a good chat with Claus, in his opinion the bike was in very good condition and good for another ten years and another 100,000kms which was what I needed to hear as I cannot afford to upgrade inless I win the Lotto!

The ride back was fantastic and what I noticed immediately was how different the front felt, over the years (from whenever the fork started leaking) I started getting a very slight vibration in the handlebars which would tend to numb my hands and if I left go of the bars the bike would pull very slightly to the right. This I obviously got used to and compensated for but now the front feel light yet firmly planted and tracks dead straight, amazing!

The power is immediate and exhilerating, very easy to break the law! 

Needless to say we went for a ride straight away, it was amazing how much I had missed the big red machine during the two weeks it was away but now it is better than ever and fully ready for my end of April trip to Africa Bike Week in Margate, Kwa-Zulu Natal South Coast some 1,650kms away but more of that later.

If you are looking for a really good bike mechanic I can thoroughly recommend Claus at Maxwil Trading in Kilarney Gardens. He does a thorough job, keeps in contact over things that need to be done but does not replace things unnessarily, which I really appreciated.

Give him a call on 021 5568954 and tell him I sent you. Oh and he doesn't do Harleys!

See you on the road.

West Coast Biker "Shavathon" for Cancer

Last Saturday the bikers on the west coast got together to raise funds for a worthy cause, as bikers often do. The call went out over social media, whatsapp and sms and from 11h00 on Saturday they started arriving at the Phoenix bar in Vredenburg to give of their time, their hair and their money!

By the time the shavathon started the place was buzzing and as it was a hot day the bar was doing a roaring trade.

One of the first to take the hot seat was Sooi, he who in two weeks time will retire after something like 39 years in the airforce and who has declared that after that he will not shave again!

Gerda, along with Rinette, was one of the ladies who worked hard that afternoon cutting hair and doing a seemingly professional job of it too.

The end result, somewhat different!

The main event of the afternoon was without doubt the shaving of Daan and a big job for the ladies, here he is before;

Every member of the Meeulanders Club paid in R50 to see this and it was such a big job that it required the united efforts of both Gerda and Rinette!

Here's the almost unrecognisable Daan with his incredible wife Bev who also had her head shaved in support of her Mother who has cancer. I'm sure Daan had trouble getting through the security checkpoint at his work on the Monday!

 Here the ladies are still hard at work, Rinette shaves her husband Anton and Wayne, a member of the Mohicans Club rather appropriately got a Mohawk.

Another lady takes over and Gerrie get the chop. I'm not sure if it was purely altruism or whether the hot weather had an influence but the people kept coming!

Here Dan takes the seat and on the right is the cleaned-up version, he said that his crash helmet had always been a bit tight so now it would fit better!

 Another brave lady took the seat and made a drastic change in the name of charity, but as they say; it eventually grows back.

Dennis who rides for the Clique and is the chairman of the West Coast Motorcycle Association was there, no point in shaving his head so they sprayed his beard pink.

The group shot, the wonderful bikers who took part. The very festive event raised an amazing amount of just under R11,500 with outstanding pledges of around R2,000 still to come in, thanks goes to all of the bikers and to Tallie Marine for a sizeable donation.

Henrico kept the joint rocking with his disco and there was good food on sale, it really was a great day out with pretty much all of the local clubs represented. well done to the organisers, bikers rule!

Sunday oxtail potjie for two

After trailering the big red machine down to Maxwil Trading in Killarney Gardens and waiting an anxious couple of days for news, I got an email from Claus to say that there was nothing major wrong with the bike, and in fact it is in very good condition for its age and mileage.

What a relief! The front forks had to be re-chromed and new "O" rings fitted but that is a feature of living on the coast; corrosion, other than that the regular service will be done and I am hoping to get my bike back in time for the club breakfast run next Sunday.

So what does a biker do on a sunny, calm Sunday when he hasn't got a bike? He cooks!.......and drinks beer. I decided on an oxtail potjie.

Purists will say that a decent pot can only be done over a fire and I agree to a certain extent, in the old days I was the same; scornful of anyone who would dare to cook a potjie over a gas cooker.

Now, however I have bent to the sheer convenience of the adjustable gas flame that has taken the effort out of trying to maintain a constant heat with little bits of wood.

Now while my pot is simmering I can chat with my friends and enjoy a cold beveridge without constantly worrying about temperture variances.

 I had a nice little packet of oxtail, sort of enough for three people but Janet and I are big eaters and anyway there is nothing better than left-overs the next night!

I coated the meat in cake wheat flour seasoned with "Six Gun Grill" spice, a favourite at the moment and then dumped it into the pot which had been heating up some olive oil. Once it was all nicely browned I removed it and set it aside.

Next to go in, my chopped onions, green bell peppers, one small habanero chilli finely chopped and a tablespoon of crushed garlic. This was fried until soft and translucent and then the meat went back into the pot.

By now it smells good enough to eat but there is a long time to go, I add a half a beer at this point and then make up a soup and wine mixture;

 Brown onion soup powder into a mug, add a crushed beef stock cube and fill the cup with red wine, in this case a Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot from Waverley Hills. Add to the pot, salt and pepper to taste, give it all a good stir and let it simmer for two hours - I still give a good stir every now and then

You have to judge when to do the next part of the pot; the vegetables, they only take about an hour so your meat has to be good and tender before you start them so that by the time the vegetables are cooked your meat is "fall off the bone" tender.

I added potatoes, butternut squash and sweetcorn miellies to the pot, turned the heat up a smidgen and left it for another hour.

When I judged that the pot had about half an hour to go I added a good wedge of cabbage and by the time the whole process had completed roughly five hours it was ready.

I usually like to make a pot of "sadza" to go with a meal like this and if there are any Rhodies reading this they will know all about it.

Sadza is an old Rhodesian staple made from ground maize and cooked into a stiff "porridge" using mostly lots of elbow grease!

I learned to enjoy it and how to cook it watching the cook when I was a youngster and a measure of how well it is prepared is if you can take a bit out of the pot and roll it into a ball without it sticking to your hand.

This ball is then dipped into the gravy and Rhodies will stand around the pot eating like this before eventually dishing up a plate of food.

A delicious meal, but really with good quality ingredients doing a potjie is not difficult, I suppose the worst thing that you could do would be to burn the food, if you watch the heat carefully you shouldn't go wrong.

Serious disappointment, a change of plans

After that last ride that Janet and I enjoyed so much I parked the bike in its usual place on our front veranda and covered it up. My plan was to clean it during the week in preparation for the Freedom Road Rally.

Returning home from work on Monday I looked at the bike as I walked in, as I am sure you all do and noticed something unusual;

an oily patch on the slasto next to the back wheel! My heart dropped. You must understand that the bike has stood there for years and there has never been any oil before.

I got down on my hands and knees and had a good look, feeling underneath the hub there was oil all over the place! It could only be from the differential or the gearbox, remember the diff. had been replaced in 2014, surely it couldn't be that? It could only be the gearbox.

I contacted my friend Craig at West Coast Yamaha, he said he would take a look, I wanted advice so I rode  through to Vredenburg, Craig confirmed my worst fears; I should not ride the bike anymore but he was unable to help, the bike would have to go to Capetown.

As I write this my brothers leave early tomorrow to ride through to Struisbaai - without me! How will they manage? Ah they'll be fine but I hope they will miss me, I will be thinking of them for sure.

Now I have to trailer the big red machine down to Capetown again!

Well at least I'll be playing pool with Frank tomorrow afternoon, he's not going either because his bike's up for sale and he's waiting for his next one.

I'll keep you posted.

A short local cruise, biker heaven

South Africa has been going through a heat wave lately, there is serious drought throughout the country, crops and livestock are in serious danger and water is being freighted up from the Cape in convoys to the stricken areas up north. Concerned western cape residents have been donating bottled water by the thousands of 5 litre containers apart from the tankers that are hauling the life saving liquid to the dry and dusty areas, an iniative that shows the care and compassion of those in the south for their brothers and sisters in need.

What this means in the cape areas is that we have been experiencing temperatures in the mid to high thirties celsius and it just becomes way too hot to pull on the gear and go out for a ride. The bike has been standing under its cover, we have looked out the door and said things like; "We should be going for a ride now, look at this beautiful evening." but it has been incredibly warm, we were wiping the sweat from our brows as we said it and the thought of pulling the gear on was just too much, rather we filled our glasses and sat out back in the shade.

So it was that Wednesday after work, and normally the evening for the local sunset cruise, which did not seem to be happening, at least our President had not heard of a ride, that Janet and I decided to get out on a ride of our own. It was warm, though for a change not stiflingly hot, there was a slight, cooling breeze as I backed the big red machine out onto the road, the engine was idling happily as Janet stepped up onto the peg and swung her leg expertly over.

You all know the feeling; slight movements of the wrists and hands get the machine moving, lift the feet from the road onto the pegs and up through the gears and you're in biker heaven. We accelerated out of town onto the circular road around the bay heading away from the setting sun which occasionally flashed in my mirrors, sixth gear cruising I wasn't in any particular hurry.

Nirvana, I settled into 100kmh cruising but soon saw a cager coming up behind me so with a very slight twist of my right wrist I left him far behind, rather stay ahead of the ordinary people. 

We came upon a "Stop/go" section of roadworks but I cruised past the queue of waiting cars to the front, maybe ten or twelve in the line and jumped away into the passing traffic, by then I had a huge grin on my face, Janet is concerned when I jump queues; "What are they going to think?" - Do I give a shit?

Our first stop was at "Juffoushoogte" guest farm where the beer quarts were icy cold, one drink only after a chat with my friend Johan and then back out onto the R27 towards Velddrif. Fog turned the temperature down considerably until we turned and headed back towards Vredenburg and it was warm again as we parked the bike outside the Phoenix bar,

 Johan had taken the ten kilometre direct route while we did thirty and was there to meet us and we drank together again, such is the biker life on the west coast.
Two more beers, bitterly cold and we headed home. It had been great to get out on the road, to feel the road beneath me, my lady behind me even though we travelled a mere 90kms.
I am looking forward to the "Freedom Road rally" on the 19th of February, I have already started getting my stuff together and have organised the day off from work so that I can ride with the club, rest assured that I will tell you all about it.
In the meantime brothers and sisters, stay safe!

Farewell to our friends

This weekend was a good one, albeit a bit sad as well because we bade farewell to two friends who are leaving to live in England. Six ex Rhodesians, three ex members of one of the finest Police forces in the world; the BSAPolice gathered at our home for some serious eating, drinking and reminiscing.

Here they are, from left front; Nicky Hillman, Annie Surkont, my lady Janet, myself, Joe Surkont and Dave Hillman, it is the Hillmans who are leaving us and we are really going to miss them. Joe and Dave were in the same training squad in depot in 1965, I only met them some twenty six years ago when we moved to the cape but we have been good friends ever since.

We invited the four of them to spend the weekend at our house to give them a bit of a spoil to remember us by.

Fresh oysters, we were all so excited to eat them that we only remembered to take a photo after we had finished eating them!

I did remember to photograph the ones that I baked; a sprinkle of Pernod, a dash of fresh cream, a sliver of creamy blue cheese, covered with grated aged cheddar and ground black pepper. About twenty minutes in the hot oven to melt the cheese - delicious!

When Janet was ready with her side dishes; savoury rice and crunchy spinach and beetroot salad I started my mains; fish cakes which I had made up the previous day and left in the fridge to set, were made up of three different types of fish; smoked angel, local mullet and snoek which I had saved from previous seafood braai and mixed with an equal amount of mashed potato. 

I rolled them in flour, dipped in egg and covered with breadcrumbs, these were then deep fried.

At the same time I smoked two angel fish and we served up;

Here's the spread; from the seafood sauce at the bottom, the fish cakes, crunchy spinach and beetroot salad, savoury rice and smoked angel fish.

Deep fried fish cakes, I love making these things and make sure to save all my left over fish.

The plate, everyone seemed to enjoy their meal and for dessert Janet made a lovely millionaire's shortbread.

The three ex cops sat up until midnight reminiscing about the old days in the BSAP, it was great having our friends around and giving them a spoil, good luck for the future and bon voyage to Dave and Nicky and we will certainly keep intouch.

(All photos by Nicky Hillman with the exception of the top one taken by a waitress at Pearlies restaurant where we had breakfast Sunday morning.)

Ceres Rail, a nostalgic train trip

 At 09h30 on Boxing Day Janet and I were at Demeter Station in the little mountain town of Ceres as the beautiful steam engine hauled its four carriages in. There was a large crowd of eager enthusiasts waiting and the train was pretty full by the time we steamed out.

 I found us a comfortable seat in one of the lovingly restored old carriages and we settled down for the two and a half hour round trip down to Wolseley.

 There is a bar on the train so we were able to enjoy a couple of glasses of wine from the Waverley Hills wine estate which on the train's route. Passengers who wish to can get off  at the estate for a picnic and re-board the train on its way back, we decided to stay on board for the whole trip and have lunch later. 

 Those of you who know the area will appreciate that the views from the train are spectacular.

 This is a relatively new venture, apparently since August last year but it was very enjoyable and definitely something that we will do again sometime. The return half of the trip was fantastic because the engine was working harder pulling the coaches back up the mountain so one could hear the old familiar "Chuff-chuff-chuff" and the shrill steam whistle at the road crossings, evocative stuff. I can remember the steam trains in Rhodesia when I was young, my Father worked for the Rhodesia Railways as a Guard and he took me on occasional weekend trips with him, very fond memories.

I can thoroughly recommend this to anyone in the area looking for a memorable day out, we paid R280 each for the trip and the wine is R30 a glass. Next time we will drive through to Ceres in the morning, take the afternoon trip and stay over one night in a self catering unit and go back home Sunday morning.

Bookings essential via email, check out their website at www.ceresrail.co.za they are also on facebook.

First lunch in 2016

Janet and I went on a wonderful, nostalgic steam train trip on Boxing day and I'm going to post details and photos in my next post, in the meantime here are some photos showing how me and my buddy Frank welcomed the new year in, he came round for lunch;

 Jasus Lalandi our West Coast Rock Lobster, steamed for a couple of minutes and you can see how big these were, they hardly fit in the steamer!

 Doused with garlic butter and smothered with grated cheddar cheese and under the grill.

 Cheers buddy, happy new year, enjoy your meal.

My plate with Janet's delicious savoury rice and avocado, our first lunch for 2016 and may it continue in the same vein, happy new year my friends!