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This time the ride was for something more meaningful – Wayne and Natasha got married on Saturday me and Jani went down to party it up in Slummies. I left Thursday at 9pm, with the idea of snoozing over in Bloemfontein. What happened in reality is that I got there at midnight, started to shoot some pool with 2 crazy-fun Egyptian brothers, and before knowing it I was chatting outside to Hitler and his buddy (yes, Hitler! Knows quite a lot about bikes as it turns out, should too as he wears a Buffalo Rally belt buckle, you know the one with the head and horns) and it was 5am already. Not feeling like laying over for an hour or two (I wanted to be in EL at noon and its still 600km away) I filled up and took the road.

Sheesh it was cold. Here’s a pic of what the temperature was other side of Reddersburg.

I arrived in Slummies just after 12 bells, hanged around Deon’s office until he finished work, got clean undies (Gugu hasn’t come in for weeks) and finally laid my head to rest for an hour or so before the bacherlor fun started. I’ll try to get pics of Wayne’s White Chicks move that Wayne pulled over at Bucs, it was hilarious to see him (dressed with huge boobs, wig and rugbyshorts, in fact like something resembling Vicky Pollard of Little Britain) drop it and get down with some breakdancing on the floor.. Anywhoo, got home at 5, slept another 3 hours and then Jani arrived (she flew down). Had lunch in Gonubie and raced off to the wedding which ended pretty early. Off we went to Numbers for a 90s party, then to bed for a few hours of sleep, then to Nahoon for breakfast and walkies on the beach, then left at 2pm Sunday to return home. Like, yeah yeah no essay today; my brain is still recovering. And then on the way home the wind was strong from the left, which is not cool as you’re thrown across the lane with every gust coming from the side, then it started to rain, which is cool, then the rain stopped and it started to snow which is even cooler. Its not that tricky to ride in the snow but visibility — and the cold!! — is a big problem. Because the snow doesn’t blow off your visor or windshield, but instead forms a sludge that you must wipe off, your hands get miserably cold even with the heated grips turned all the way. Leaving Aliwal after some chow at Wimpy the storm was so bad I had to turn around and wait it out because I couldn’t see a thing behind wet glasses, fog, ice on the visor, snow on the screen and snow in the lights (it was 7pm I think then). Luckily it didn’t last long and I arrived in Bloem at midnight, where I filled up again, had a Red Bull and pushed through to get home. I was in bed at 2am and had to be up at 7 for a project meeting. So there, four days, 2000kms, -5C, snow and liters of Redbull with 12 hours sleep. I feel great =)

Check the piccies here.

Lessons learnt:

• Listening to The Hobbit audiobook while riding through the Eastern Cape is awesome and you forget about time while imagining little Hobbits, ferocious goblins and howling wolves all around you while riding through the mountains not too far from where Tolkien was born.
• Ipods don’t do 16 hours. Not having music (or Frodo) for 1/2 the trip was a bit sucky.
• Never eat yellow snow.
• I now know what a ‘undercut’ on a bikini top is. Thanks Deon and Wayne!
• There’s no 95 petrol in Bloem or Aliwal. Unless you spend an hour riding around in Bloem, but definitely not in Aliwal. Next time I’ll pack a jerry can under the seat.

Cheers