2009 Waterberg Ride

A total of 32 Club Central members (19 bikes, of which 9 were GS’s) took part and enjoyed what the Waterberg offers, over the weekend 17 to 19 July 2009.

The route started at Shell Ultra City, North bound, N1, and proceeded to Cullinan Wimpy for a leg stretch and welcome cup of coffee.( Having negotiated the traffic and road work up-grading, to get to Bapsfontein, it is advisable to meet at a venue like Bapsfontein for future events,) This will make it easier for all to meet at an agreed time.

The route to Moloto, around Rust de Winter Nature Reserve to Bela-Bela was calming, as all riders were settling down to seeing open green spacers and no traffic, as well as the excitement of what the weekend will offer.Tony Wood did a good job of being TEC-thank you Tony. The Dros was prepared for our arrival and lunch was enjoyed by all.After the 90 min. break we set off for Vaalwater via Modimolle, to stop for a leg stretch and re-fuel. Before reaching Machauka Lodge in Lephalale we stopped at the biltong shop, aptly named “Biltong Go Back”. A tremendous variety of biltong and dry-wors is available at this shop and many riders could not resist purchasing Kudu, Eland, Impala, Warthog and Waterbuck products. About 8km before our destination we all stopped at the spectacular “View-Site” and were met by the staff off the Machauka Lodge who had two large galvanized basins filled with refreshments-some alcoholic- as well as their speciality shooter, aptly named “Melk-Tert” !! This being a mixture of vodka, condensed milk and Ideal milk all topped with a sprinkling of nutmeg. Many ladies and gentlemen enjoyed this pleasurable drink..it set the tone for the evening!

That evening we all met at around 18h30 to discuss Saturdays plans as well as enjoying seeing friends that you have not seen for some time. The lodge had arranged for our party to enjoy dinner in their private dinning room, complete with bar and roaring log fire..It was most comfortable.

We all assembled at around 08h00 on Saturday to ride to the largest Baobab tree in the RSA. The route taken was to Swartwater and then we all negotiated a DIRT road of approximately 1.2km to get to the tree itself. All riders negotiated this challenge successfully!(see photos)It took 33 large steps to walk around the circumference…very impressive for a huge approximately 600 year old living chunk of nature.

The group then proceeded to Steenbokpan to enjoy lunch at the Bosveld Pub and Grill. The rugby fanatics departed in time to return to Machauka to watch the two Curry Cup matches. The site of the new power station under construction on this road was something to see..Real Engineering.

At this stage of the weekend everybody was comfortable and the camaraderie was great.

Dinner again, was enjoyed by all and it was pleasing to see that everybody sat with different people at dinner time, all getting to know each other. After dinner the “real manne” assembled in the pub and relaxed with company of their choice. It was great to see how all went with the flow and enjoyed the moments on offer. The pub singer did an excellent job of entertaiong us.

On Sunday morning riders departed at various times, with the main group departing at around 08h30.We travelled to Thabazimbi for a leg stretch and re-fuel. Then onto “Greens Garage” about 18km before Britz, where we all said good-bye.

Special thanks to :

·Louis Haarhoff , Mark Gathercole and all others who took photos.

· Etienne le Roux and Tony Wood doing TEC duties.Tony and Carol celebrated their wedding anniversary on Saturday…Well done

· Nigel Goodliffe for daring to wear a WP rugby jersey in real Blou-bull territory. He caused quite a stir with the HUGE and khaki dressed locals.

· Etienne le Roux for the exotic dancing display late on Saturday night. None of us watching him fully realised that a specialist surgeon could relax in this manor, tattoos and all !!

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