How Crave for Ride Hit Africa on the Way to Wheels and Waves

'Fuck me, can you see that shit!' one of us said and the other replied, 'Shut up, will you' because he was nice and cozy with his kevlar motorcycle shirt – on his head.

Elbow-to-elbow

One year three of us had been driving for for two days with only short stopovers. We wanted to get to Wheels and Waves Festival in Biarritz, France, the fastest we could. We had two custom motorcycles in the back, Red Hot Chilli Custom's work, one of them a lovely Yamaha scrambler, and plenty of Crave for Ride motorcycle shirts and motorcycle jackets, T-shirts, tool rolls, stuff.

A custom scrambler motorcycle and Crave for Ride snapback hat in an old VW van.

We were kind of in a hurry.

However, Red's beloved vehicle, an old VW van could have been riding German roads well before we had been born and was not particularly speedy. Bumpy, yes, uncomfortable, too, hurting your back like hell, true, just not especially swift. We were easily taken over by 18-wheelers.

Wheels and Waves snapback hat on a rainy windshield of an old VW van

A nap needed

So we were done. None of us could keep his eyes open wide enough to see the road ahead. Pissed and all ready to pick a fight after long elbow-to elbow co-existence, we decided to pull over.

The pale gray light of dawn was already crawling to kill the night but that was OK. We needed a couple of hours nap.

Red sleeping in an old VW van among motorcycles, motorcycle shirts and motorcycle jackets packed in bags

I'm not sure how long did we sleep.

An awakening

When we woke up, we saw this:

Camels and dromedaries on open grassland at a distance with windmills in the background

The first thing one of us said was, 'Fuck me, zebras! Can you see that shit?!'

'WTF?' the other one added. 'Camels? Maaan!'

'These are dromedaries, you moron!'

'How many humps can you see this one has?!'

'Shut the fuck up, will you?' the third one obviously did not appreciate taking his motorcycle shirt off his head. Like he didn't realize we ended up in Africa with Noah's Arc being dispersed all over the place.

'Man, you really have to see this!'

So he did.

Zebra and five dromedaries and a pony on grassland with windmills in the background

Wheels and Waves 2015

Apparently, a circus had a stopover somewhere near Bordeaux. We joined the animals with some baguettes bought at a nearby Intermarché, said au revoir, and in three hours made it to Biarritz...

Biarritz urban shoreline as seen from the lighthouse