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 Arthur Rama gives his reportback on the first one-nighter of 2009 to Ladybrand.
"The group, well some of the group, got together at the dealership in Sandton on Saturday morning, where we had some coffee and some shopping before getting on our motorbikes for the first One Nighter of the year.
With the first stop on the horizon, the whole pack got pulled over by the Highway Patrol (cops that is). Some were lucky and some were not so lucky, Nikki and Andre Lillian manage to get in the cop’s bad book by not having the right number plates on (like all of us). While they were getting their fines, the rest of the guys went on ahead to the Petroport to wait for them. Eventually they did arrive (cops in our country are very slow to write fines I must say).
In Villiers we picked up some of our Country Members, after a drink and refill, we took the road to Clarens via Reitz and then Kestell and of course going through the Golden Gate National Park. We had a couple of problems with two of the bikes but one of the bikes got sorted out and the other got loaded on the…trailer. While some of the guys (and girls) stayed back to help sort out the problem the other went ahead to Clarens where we would meet. Leading that pack was our own Vince the Prince man.
We met them there, had our lunch and short rest and got back on the road to Ladybrand, 150kms still to go. We arrived at the venue just after 5pm with all the delays we had. Not bad actually. The idea was to arrive on 4pm after having done 485kms, but we did manage a good time considering the delays. Well done guys
Place was lovely and while some went to freshen up others had the hard job of staying at the pub waiting for dinner to arrive. All outside on the deck and we had a small incident where a chair broke and we had to take the person to the hospital for a check up….what a hospital. Not even the doctors want to go there, so eventually we manage to get one of the local doctors to take a look at our patient. Thanks to the Doc and Braam, the local tow truck guy.
Dinner was quite pleasant and the food was very good. At least is the report I got. We then got together at the pub where we carried on having some more fun. Many shooters and drinks later some of us retired (other didn’t know how they got there), while other stayed behind until…..3am. Say no more
During the night a really BIG STORM hit Ladybrand but the morning broke with the sun shinning upon us. Breakfast…..get together, fill up and departure back home via Clocolan, Senekal and Kroonstad. A light lunch there and back home with everyone arriving safely. The ride home was much quicker and also a shorter route. Most of the guys got home just on 2:30pm
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the dealership (Jerry in particular) for the help with the back up unit and also to thank all of the people that made this first one nighter a very pleasant and fun one!
The group was made of 34 people in all and 24 bikes.
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