A long way down

The Great Sani Pass Vespa Adventure
Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day Five
Day One: A long way down

The Great Sani Pass Vespa Adventure started this morning with Sophia refusing to start. Well she must be getting me back for not riding her for during the last week or two and it has been icy cold. I was starting to worry after trying to jumpstart Sophia, she protested for quite a while but finally she relented to my pleas. After a late start Sophia (the black ET4 shown above) and I met with Magda and Martin (shown above) both on Vespa GTS 300 and Paulo on a Vespa GT 200 and the quadraphony of Vespas eager to get going headed south to the Free Sate.

It was a beautiful day riding but the country side was flat as a pancake which brought along gusty winds. We stopped for fuel for the Vespas and ourselves in Heilbron, a small town in the Free State. OJ, a restaurant in Heilbron, served us a reasonable breakfast or maybe we should say lunch. While we tucked in a number of spectators admired our four Vespas packed down with baggage, even a lone hog on his Harley couldn't help but turn his head and stare.

All tanked up, we headed for Bethlehem and then to Clarens. At Bethlehem we stopped to buy refreshments and headed to the Lesotho Highlands Water Project Ash River Outfall just before Clarens for sundowners. All relaxed we rode into Clarens before it got dark and booked into the Lake Clarens Guest House. I must say this guest house deserves 5 stars. Once settled we headed up to the Grouse & Claret for supper. Hungry, we tucked into homemade pies which were very good except the mash was lumpy but an evening with friends next to a fireplace was a perfect first evening. Here's to the  Great Sani Pass Vespa Adventure, what legends are made from.

Black Ice and Death...