Magaliesburg Mog Meander

Magaliesburg Mog Meander

OK – Confession time.

I stopped in Krugersdorp to put up the hood on the Morgan. On our way back from Whispering Pines other side Magaliesburg, it was unbearably hot and the breeze – at any speed – was not helping much.

Jacqui decided “enough already!” and I agreed.

In years gone by we had a fines system for being seen with Morgan hood rampant.

Fines tariff was as follows:.

1.)    Sun shining - R 20 00.

2.)    Drizzling – R 30.00.

3.)    Highveld storm – R 50 00.

4.)    Snowing – R 100.00.(Worth it to get pics of the Mog in the snow!)

Not totally logical but definitely in the Morgan spirit of things.

We had the “Golden Hubcap” used as the collection plate  for the fines. (Idea stolen by Ronnie Wilson from Piston Ring I believe) This was a hubcap painted gold on the inside. We called it a Morgan hubcap off an old flat-rad largely because it had an M embossed in the middle. I suspect however that it originated off an old Morris Minor. I think it has vanished but if anyone knows its whereabouts, we should really re-introduce the sergeant-at-arms whose function it would be to dish out fines for real and imagined transgressions.

He would have had a field day at Magaliesburg:

      1.) Alan Young arrived in his MG RV8! Stunning - and probably my favourite MG ever. Boyd Fergusson, Boy and Frankie’s son also had/has one and I understand from Alan that there are only about 3 or 4 in the country. Very special – but can you imagine how exposed Alan and Pam are to a huge fine?  

  
     2.) And another fine for Alan because the MG wouldn’t start when we left Broadacres! Bonnet up, fiddle fiddle…I was too slow to get it on film – sorry!  

      3.) John Tilley can almost be forgiven because he arrived in his very special LHD Merc. I don’t remember the model but it is a smallish 4 cylinder which goes like hell. He didn’t fancy our slow pace so he took the longer scenic route and arrived 30 minutes before us!

 
     4.) Kevin has had a haircut and is almost unrecognisable!

      5.) Bill Blair went for an early morning run in his Pagoda Merc Sports with Slade Healy in his Roadster and somewhere near Hartebeespoort dam the Merc started making smoke signals  from under the dash! Mechanic summoned to take the car home and Bill joined Slade in the Roadster for breakfast.

  
      6.) Ray and Jeanetta Eberlein explained how to erect an old-style hood in under 3 minutes in a sudden storm. You attach the hood back and front, climb into the car under the hood and pull the hoops up over your head. This way you don’t get too wet!!!! Jeanetta capped this with instructions for losing your pants exiting a Morgan in the rain!!! (You don’t want to know!)

        7.) Nigel Tame and Liz guided us to Magaliesburg with strict instructions not to go too fast. He took this to heart to such an extent that we didn’t exceed 80 k.p.h. once! Just as well – we drove past Maropeng where, according to our Government civilisation started (huh?!). I didn’t realise that this beautiful road had become a cycle track with 6 or so fairly pointless circles inserted and dozens of bone-jarring very expensive bricked speed humps. We shared the road with 150 000 cyclists who apparently cannot ride without talking to at least one fellow cyclist next to them. They were everywhere! Thanks for getting us through in one piece Nigel!

Some had already left....

8.) Terry Barson can’t drive his Morgan. His arm is still U/S and he’s bought a little automatic Japanese (probably Korean actually) box to get around. Says it’s great and will do fine until he heals.

9.) And finally Slade was there largely to see my nuts and compare. You'll have to ask him about that! They didn't by the way!

Whispering Pines was pleasant enough under the trees – though the last bit of road was a challenge. Someone lost our booking though it didn’t make too much difference. Breakfast was fine but what happened to our R 50.00 – eat as much as you like breakfasts? Sign of the times I guess.

Till next time.

Terry.