The 1970 South African Buffalo Rally
By Hilary Watts
Organising Secretary
Plans for Buffalo 70 are now being pushed vigorously ahead. Long distance rallying is new to South Africa. It wasn’t until September last year (1969) that the first national rally took place. Known as the Buffalo and sponsored by Mobil, the event was at once a tremendous success. Over four hundred entries came in from all over the Republic, most of these, as expected, being from Golden City —Johannesburg — from Cape Town and Durban.
This rally has been named the Buffalo after a vigorous and typically South African animal. It is modelled on the great rallies of Europe, the elephant which meets at the Nurburgring in Germany and the Dragon which centres on Wales.
The Buffalo is being run again this year ot the same venue—the village of Bathurst, near Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape Province. This is a pleasant little place set among rolling farmland and famous in history for the battles that took place in and around it one hundred and more years ago between the English settlers and the local tribes in what we now know as the Kaffir Wars. Bathurst possesses showgrounds, owned and run by the local agriculatural society, which provide and ideal centre for the Rally. In addition to the charm of the setting—parkland, grass and trees—and their nearness to the seaside holiday resort of Port Alfred only eight miles away, the showgrounds have all the amenities which make a first-class event: several big halls for indoor trade displays, cinema shows and, of course, the bandstand, an electric light plant, covered accommodation which gives camping protection from the weather and all unusal offices. All this makes it easier fo reverone to be comfortable—that after all is the art of camping—and to enjoy themselves.
The Rally is organised by the Nomads Club of Cape Town and is open to anyone who can get there on a motorised two or three-wheeler, by which is meant motorcycles, scooters, mopeds and sidecar outfits. Wives and girlsfriends, mums and dads, cousins, aunts and uncles will all be welcome to come along and watch.
In order to encourage as many entrants as possible, the organisers have decided to make the event non-competitive. Riders and their passengers will be required only to ride to the venue, having their route cards stamped at three Mobil stations and at the final check point at Bathurst. The distances are considerable—Pretoria nearly 700 miles away, Johannesburg and Cape Town 630, Durban 500, and the rewards for completing the distance are the coveted Finishers Badge and the Finishers Certificate. Any route is allowed and riders may take a slong or as short a time as they like over it, provided they clock in by the evening of the first day, Saturday. Settler’s Day falls on 7th September, Monday, so the three day holiday allows a day to travel to Bathurst, a clear day on Sunday for a full programme of events, including a church service, a concours d’elegance, motorcycle football, gymkhana, demonstrations of foot up trials and scrambles and, or course, yarning around the camp fire. There will b a dance to a well known group on Saturday evening and on Sunday the Mobil Show followed by motorcycling films. Meanwhile, the trade people will have a continuous mini show running, w ith all the well known distributors displaying bikes, accessories and equipment.
Enthusiasm for motorcycling in all its forms is growing rapidly in South Africa. The 1970 Buffalo will certainly give a very strong boost to the is welcome movement.
