130Km

Today we spend the day in Cape Town visiting family and doing some light maintenance work. So there was no need to get up early but my internal clock got me out of bed just after 6 and I used the time to do the ride report for yesterday which did not get done that evening. Mixing alcohol and responsibility and we all know which is going to come out tops. Anyways it got done by the time Izabel poked her head out. While having coffee with Jenna on the back porch we discussed our plans for the day.

I need to contact Tim from Cape Sidecar Adventures about getting a backup tire, go visit my brother and then clean the air filter and some other miscellaneous maintenance. Come right over, no problem is the response from Tim. Sounds standard for a business except that this is Sunday and he will be coming in to open up just to help me. We ride to Salt River where Cape Sidecar Adventures is located and Tim is there already waiting for us.

Cape Sidecar Adventures

It is an amazing shop filled with all sorts of stuff. CJ sidecars, helmets, photos.

Cape Sidecar Adventures, if you don’t know it yet, is a company in Cape Town that specializes in tours with a difference. They offer guided tours, of various lengths in and around Cape Town in a sidecar. They obviously supply the sidecar and driver to take tourists on an amazing adventure.

To maximize capacity and to cater for those who want to be in the same sidecar during a tour they have introduced the double tub where two passengers can sit in a tub together.

You can see this here with the black and red seats in the same tub.

You could not ask for a nicer guy but you probably know this by now since he opened his shop just for us and offered up his Sunday time to help us.

Me with Tim.

Tims showed us around his shop and just when you think that is it, there is more! With the Covid thing hitting the tourism industry hard he diversified and started a distillery, Sidecar Caffé Distillery.

They currently have a license for off sales but you can do some tasting before deciding on the best spirits for you.

Tim explains the ins and outs to Izabel. I hope she is making notes.

Some of the fine products they make.

Some tasting has taken place.

But then just as you think this is it Tim asks if we wanna see his old Bedford fire truck, Mrs. Doubtfire. We go outside, around a corner where he opens another roller door to reveal the rest of his CJ fleet

Mrs. Doubtfire.

Mrs Doubtfire is actually an old Bedford fire truck built in 1955. These trucks were known as the green goddesses and some of them were still in service by as late as the early 2000s. Not many remain that are still roadworthy, Mrs. Doubtfire being one of them. With seating in the back, she is available to be hired for a fun drive around town and Brodey can be persuaded to join. Brodey is a rescue and he can be followed on his Facebook page.

Brodey is ready to get going.

I’m trying to get on the same level as Izabel aka Stompie but does a really bad job of being inconspicuous about it.

What a great time we had with Tim. We leave to visit my brother who stays close by but we had to battle some heavy traffic, the cause of which we discovered about 15 minutes later.

Not sure what happened here but I’ll go out on the limb and make the assumption that stupidity was involved.

With my brother Pierre. That’s me on the right, or as I like to say, I’m the pretty one.

Back at Paul and Jenna’s place, I do some maintenance. Clean air filter, check/tighten bolts and replace split vacuum air tube.

Izabel with Paul.

Tomorrow we leave for our next stop in Stilbay. The plan is to be on the road at 6 trying to miss traffic out of Cape Town. We have to see how that pans out.