In spite of some decent pre-ride hype, the combination of schedule clashes, component failures and notorious Capetonian fickleness meant that only three riders showed up at the Muizenberg Pavilion on Saturday morning.

With its glory days long past, the Muizenberg beachfront has a vaguely depressing air about it. Kind of like a mothball-infused relative who forces a tin of stuck-together sweets upon you every time you visit.
Like the buildings that they occupy, the faces of the locals display a corrosion that comes from a lifetime’s exposure to the sun, wind and sea. Needless to say, I was glad to get on my bike and head in the direction of Simon’s Town.

Having negotiated the St James road works (and psychotic truck drivers) on foot, we rolled through to Kalk Bay.

As we passed through Fish Hoek, I remember thinking, “Wow, we’ll be in Simon’s Town in no time.” Two minutes later, we turned the corner into Glencairn and the south-easter hit us head-on.
The flags don’t lie.

From there, it was like trying to cycle through a puddle of glue. I quickly assumed the appearance of a middle-aged nodder. If they were struggling, Mike and Emil hid it pretty well.
The sand-blasting we received as we rode past Clovelly beach was pretty harsh, but on the approach to Simon’s Town the wind died down enough for us to sit up and enjoy the ride.
We stopped briefly in Simon’s Town to re-up on camera supplies and flush the sand out of our ears and noses. Then we headed on through to Boulders.
(Everyone knows fixies r gay.)

We locked up our bikes and went to check out the carbon-fibre penguins.

Having ticked the tourist box, we headed back into Simon’s Town to refuel.

Our original plan was to catch the train back to Muizenberg, but the prospect of having the south easter on our backs for the return journey was too good to pass up.
The ride back was so good. We took it slow; taking in the scenery we’d missed on the way out.

We arrived back at the Pavilion four hours after we set off. We all agreed it was great to ride somewhere other than town/southern suburbs. Hopefully we can get more riders together next time.

–The End–
