Azcari Adventure Centre - Official Opening 09.04.11

So it been quite the weeks for firsts. For example - this is the first time I'm blogging about our opening day on Saturday. I also passed my CBT first time last Thursday. And yesterday racked up a couple more firsts with a trail ride and a crash. Both were excellent by the way.

So lets start with Saturday and then I'll work my way through the list.

As you can see we could not have picked a more perfect day. The weather gods finally smiled on us and gave us a sunny weekend. There were moments when it felt like I was back in South Africa, beer camera in hand and sun on my face. Lekker nice! So I've been trying to get this done all day every time I try, something else happens. The doors are shut, the sun is down and the last minute brochure is finished. Shall I tempt fate and try finish this post? I think yes.

Another first for our list I forgot to mention, we made our first few Husqvarna sales. Very nice indeed. Hope there are many more to come. There were a few test rides on Saturday and everyone seemed to enjoy the bikes. Our web designer was one of them. And as you can see from below, he was so impressed he bought 3 on the spot . . . in cash. Thanks Lee! Not only do you stop me from deleting/destroying the Azcari site, you also support the shop.

    Lee and his new fleet of huskys.

As the masses waited eagerly for the chicken curry to arrive there was plenty of time to talk all things adventure. Amongst the crowd was Mark Kirby, on his Honda Africa Twin, who plans to ride from Chertsey in London to Chennai in India this September.

If that wasn't enough, he and 3 others plan to do so on classic Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycles. Further still, these guys are raising awareness and funds for the White Lodge Centre. If you can, please take a few extra minutes and read a bit more about this challenging and noble cause. The Azcari crew wishes you well guys.

Nick Plumb from Touratech was also there. As was Robert Wicks who was signing copies of his Adventure Motorcycle books. Vines Guilford also brought down a few of the new BMW's to display.

I can tell you that the food was well worth the wait. I ate it all day and then took a tub home and ate till it eventually ran out on Sunday night. I wish it had been an infinity tub. Everlasting chicken curry . . . hmmmmm.

*Wipes drool*

Where was I? Ah yes, the open day. I don't really want to rattle on too much as I really need to get this uploaded and I every time I look at my to do list, it keeps getting longer. Overall though, I think the day was a massive success. There was a really good turn out, which I think I was worried about the most. So if you are reading this and you came to show support - high five. Actually make that a high 10! And of course many thanks. It's still early days so hang in there and you'll see much more happening at the centre. We're only going to get better and bigger. Better at what we do and bigger in terms of where we take the centre and the things we can offer.

   

   

The trouble with an open day is you're never sure who's going to turn up. More often than not you have a few trouble makers and true to form they arrived. They pretty much trashed the place and gave my brother a good beating. Luckily for me I has some back up. We managed to get them off the bikes and out the shop. I gave these photos to police so hopefully they'll catch them. If you see them be warned!

Yeah...think I'm having too much fun here. This is supposed to be a work blog. Woe betide he who enjoys blogging at work. I'm going to sign off now and leave you with few more images from the day.

Thanks again for coming out and a massive thanks to all of you who lent a hand in getting things up and running. We cannot thank you enough.


Until next time.