#Wednesday Walk - Enjoying Santas on Harleys!

This post is for the #wednesdaywalk challenge and the #makemesmile challenge collaboration. This collaboration initially took place once a month, but due to its popularity, @tattoodjay (of the #wednesdaywalk) and @elizacheng (of #makemesmile) decided to make it a weekly thing.

If you want to know more about the rules, visit this week's post by @tattoodjay where you will find all the rules at the bottom of his post after you've enjoyed his beautiful photos from his walk.

I hope I am still making it in time to let this post qualify for a Wednesday Walk by hoping it is still Wednesday somewhere in the world when I publish this post...lol.

Yes, life happened and my schedule was hectic, so I didn't get to everything as planned...

But, here we go...

We are members of some traffic groups on WhatsApp to enable us to plan our trips better when we have to go somewhere.

Late Saturday afternoon, we received a message from one of these groups about the "2023 Santas on Harleys" ride.

We received the message just after they departed from Westville, west of Durban, at 17h30. They were heading for Stokers Arms, a Pub and Restaurant in Kloof, further west and not too far from where we live. That would be their first stop on their route.

I looked at my wife and said: "Let's go!"

I hoped that we would be in time to make it to Stoker's Arms just before they arrived there.

It worked out perfectly. I had just enough time to park the car, get the camera out, and find a spot where I thought they would be coming through.

I saw some bikers parked there. It seemed that they were also waiting there for the Harleys to come.

They were scheduled to arrive at Stokers at about 18h30, but at 18h15, I heard the well-known roaring of Harley engines. As I looked down the road, it was a beautiful sight...lol!

Now I have to tell you, this was another learning curve for me...

The light wasn't good as it was late afternoon and very cloudy.

Secondly, when they arrived, I wanted to capture everything...and they were moving...and the camera was slow in the low light...

So, as the "leader of the pack" came by, I wanted to capture him and be ready for the rest of the group... So, this photo did not come out well...but I had some fun with it and decided to share it here just for fun...as the "Ghost Rider"...

Then the rest of the group started passing by...

I was expecting that they would park in front of Stokers, the normal parking area. But instead, they went around and parked at the back.

The roaring thunder of these power engines gave me goosebumps...lol!

Then these guys also got ready to join them at the back...

These weren't Harleys though, they were Yamaha's...but wow...also beautiful machines!!

The guy gave me a friendly wave (which I was just too late to catch in the photo), and the lady gave me a nice thumbs-up.

Waiting for the two bikes in front of him to pull off...

I walked around to get some more photos.

Here are some of the bikes that were parked there. In my next post, I will share some images of some of these beautiful bikes individually.

All the bikers were relaxing before starting the next leg of their journey. The happy guy in the center was a cyclist. But I think he must be a biker too because he was very familiar with all the bikers and was part of the group.

Then this friendly guy pitched up on a little electric scooter (with one foot in a moon boot...lol), and clearly also being part of the biker community, the other bikers started teasing him from a distance. He ended up challenging them to a race.

I joked with him, asking him if he didn't think he would end up with his other foot in a moon boot too...haha.

He laughed and replied that that would most likely be the case😂!

He then also joined the other bikers.

After a while, they started returning to their bikes.

And the guy with his electric scooter left in the opposite direction...not wanting to race anymore...LOL!

At this point , I was up for a challenge..a challenge of my own.

I wanted to capture as many photos as possible, but I also wanted to get some on video to capture the sound as they started up.

Seeing that my wife preferred waiting for me at the car, I was on my own...😅.

So, I took the cell phone in one hand, shooting a video blindly, while taking photos with the camera in the other hand...LOL!

I just kept shooting, hoping for the best!

One of the "older gentlemen" who joined the ride...😉

And here is the video...

My apologies if it's a bit shaky at times, but as I mentioned, I just had to get the sound. So this video was taken blindly while taking photos with my camera in the other hand...

And that's it for today, folks. I really had fun doing this post!

Thank you for reading my post! I do appreciate it!