Breakfast run to The Coffee Junction, Tygervalley
19th February 2006
Well, this was to be the venue for our new captains 3rd ride for 2006, but it would seem that fate and the usual incompetence from our government owned monopolies had other ideas.
I had been on a ride a couple of days earlier down to Hout Bay and had not filled up since, so when Lisa and I set off for the ride, the 1st stop was to be a refueling stop (as per usual). Much to my delight (not), I found that the attendants at the petrol station waved us by as we tried to pull in for juice. I soon realized that this had to be related to the fact that no traffic lights were working in the Tableview area and on Koeberg Road. Not to worry – there are plenty more refueling stations further on… Well, it turned out that none were able to assist and we ended up at Damelin with about 60KM worth of fuel left in my tank. This posed a problem and I started suspecting that some delightful chap would take it upon himself to nominate me for a Cog-Up at the next meeting (as I seem to be victimized of late in this regard). With some relief I soon discovered that at least half the pack were in the same pickle. Welcome to our first Zimbabwean breakfast run… No petrol, no electricity and serious doubts about finding any breakfast.
We discussed the situation amongst ourselves and eventually brought our concerns to the attention of Graham: “Although we know you enjoy long rides with a couple of passes thrown in, should you lead us on one of these today, only half of us will reach our destination and Nomads would be scattered all over the countryside.” So, Sidestand called for a show of hands to see how many of us had this problem and the consensus was that we shorten the route… dramatically! We headed out on the N1, took the N7 and took the Visserhoek Road to Tygervalley. 32Km in total – this had to be the shortest breakfast run I have ever done with the club. Graham mentioned to me that the planned route would have taken us about 95KM to complete – 30 KM beyond my fuel range and then I would still need to get home. Good call Graham!
Upon arrival at Tygervalley Shopping Centre and after a smoke break outside, we decided to enter the surreal looking, poorly lit mall and venture on to our breakfast venue. Once we found the spot, it was basically all closed up with a few staff members milling around inside. Graham enquired about our booking, but was told that they would be closed for the day due to the power failures having wrecked their computers (or something of that ilk). Somehow an alternative arrangement was made and we would be able to proceed on to Ziggi’s Restaurant in the main Food/Entertainment Court in the center and they would be able to assist us. The owner himself (I think) welcomed us and got us all seated and immediately set about getting his staff scurrying about to arrange a few pots of coffee for us. Ok, so it did come in dribs and drabs, but well done to them under the circumstances – they were making it using gas to heat the water. Graham negotiated a standard breakfast and standard price, which they then set about preparing for us. While they made our food we all sat about chatting in near darkness. A short while later the breakfast began arriving and a very decent breakfast it was too. I (and all of us, I am sure) was rather impressed by the food under the circumstances which it was prepared (considering they were not expecting a bunch of hungry bikers to arrive) – well done again and thanks to Ziggi’s for accommodating us at such short notice.
A while after the food had been deployed, the power decided to come back on, so we were able to see the last few morsels we were stuffing down our gullets. Anyhow, with power restored and fuel now available, but with no proper ride under our belts for the day, a bunch of us decided that we simply had to do a “post-breakfast-run run”, so we headed off, gassed up and set off up the N1 again on a roundabout route to the Big Barrel Pub (Mountain View farm). That is, however, a tale all on it’s own and I am not going to go into that now. I guess some of you will hear some small parts of it at the next meeting… I thought the Cog-up was supposed to be a floating trophy – come on guys, give me a break here.
Generally turned out to be a good day, despite the poor start it got off to. All in all, if I remember correctly, there were 16 people on 11 bikes.
Thanks to Graham and Ziggi’s
Later,
Devin
