Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

“Today I’m going to do what is expected of me as a good citizen of this country”, I said to myself earlier this morning. “At the end of today no one should be able to criticize me for not celebrating an important national day on the calendar of our beloved country – National Youth Day!”

And, as a youngster who is still at least two months away from qualifying for a senior citizen package at my bank, I realised that the day will come one day in the distant future that I will not be so young anymore to still qualify to celebrate National Youth Day.  “Today I’ll be celebrating National Youth Day with vigour and glee”, it echoed in my mind as I started to prepare myself for this illustrious occasion.

Not owning a soccer shirt, I decided to put on my BMW riding suit. No vuvuzela either. “Maybe the exhaust sound of the 1200GS on the open road will sound just as good”, I convinced myself.

“Oh no, no soccer match to go to!”, I realized when I checked the sport pages of the morning newspaper. “In that case the past few days’ snowfall in Ceres would have to do.”

I must say that I actually started to feel like a much younger citizen of our beloved country while I was celebrating National Youth Day at 180km per hour on a beautiful country road to Tulbagh and from there to Ceres. Even though the pitch in the exhaust note did not quite match that of the now famous vuvuzela, it still sounded like some national anthem for which one should have the utmost respect for and stand to attention to when being played.

Cruising past quaint country farm stalls with handwritten signs standing against makeshift supports alongside the road saying “scones are in the oven” and “roosterkoek and port on special”, made me think that perhaps there is more to life than having a beer while watching the soccer match between two foreign countries on television.

Sitting in Mitchells Pass behind a slow truck fully laden with fresh oranges and inhaling orange infused crisp mountain air through my open visor. I said to myself: “There should be more days of national importance to celebrate in such a patriotic way.”

And whizzing past the four kilometre stretch of almost stationery, bumper-to-bumper traffic with people inside motor cars wanting to get into Ceres, clearly not celebrating and enjoying National Youth Day in the same exciting way that I was, made me glad that I planned well. Sitting inside motorcars should not be a celebrating option for any national day.

I was a proud citizen when I arrived home in Stellenbosch a few hours later. For the first time in many years I actually celebrated National Youth Day. And I did it in a way that I will remember for a long time to come. My trusty 1200 GS purring underneath me like no vuvuzela will ever be able to do, fresh mountain air pouring over my face with more vigour than the roar of a crowd when a goal is scored, Boland mountains covered in such pure white snow that it makes the colourful soccer crowd on my HD television look boring and dull, images of freshly-baked scones from the oven in an old-world farm stall in my mind – all of these were memories of my National Youth Day experience.

So, my fellow-citizens who never celebrate days of national importance, please forgive me if I conclude on an even more serious note. National days of importance are days to celebrate. You should do so. Plan and prepare well for it. And make sure that a BMW motorcycle is part of the plan!