After an uneventful journey on Friday 9th the convoy arrived at the liberation site at 16 00 where the pigeons were fed and watered and bedded down for the night. Weather on the way down was overcast and ideal for traveling.
During the night this changed and steady rain set in. This was welcomed by the farming community of Wolmaranstad. We however would have preferred it to have stayed away until after our training race. The few summer rain showers experienced thus far had not been sufficient to put the Maize seed into the ground, this rain with some follow up rain could see them beating the December 31st deadline for planting.
Saturday dawned to grey skies, a cold North East wind and light drizzle. Whilst the pigeons had been watered and were impatiently waiting and ready to go the conditions were anything but favourable for their release. Deliberations about the weather over the whole route culminated in an instruction to hold fire on the release until 09 00. The decision then taken was to bring the pigeons back as the forecast for Sunday was bleak.
Back at the lofts on Saturday the pigeons were put back into their compartments to enjoy a night in their own beds. Sunday was a day of leisure to enjoy a bath while many took advantage of the cool ideal conditions to loosen up their muscles after being cooped up for 2 days.
The whole exercise was repeated on Monday and in partly cloudy conditions and the sun peeking through the pigeons were liberated at 05 15 on Tuesday the 13th. The pigeons split into 3 packs in the general direction of Sun City and took off with speed.
Back at the lofts a few of the faithful had taken the day off to witness the arrival of the pigeons, hopefully to witness their Car winner first though the traps. This nearly came to pass for Mark and Naomi Kitchenbrand as their pigeon” V Matfield” arrived in position 13. Had it possessed the fleet footedness of its illustrious namesake the famous Rugby player victor Matfield it might have made up the minute needed to beat the German fanciers Jeurgen Stefaniszyn’s “Saint Cloud’ for the win.
Hot Spot Car Race 2 has indicated that pigeon fanciers take the cake in this regard. The extoling of the merits of entering ones pigeons for the Hot Spot Car Races clearly fell on deaf ears. First placed pigeon “Saint Cloud” saw its motor car driven away by the delighted United Kingdom entrant R&P Montilas “Solataire Super VR” which finished in 2nd place and entered by its owners. Pigeons in positions 6, 7, 11 and 14th position likewise saw their efforts rewarded to lessor placed entered pigeons.
A stern team talk must have been given to the Koopman team after the previous Hot Spot Car Race as they did brilliantly in this one with positions 3rd and 9th. The general trend is that the competition is red hot with no fewer than eleven countries in the top 20. The competition in The Grand Averages has 6 countries featured in the top 20.Leading this competition is the USA entry “Gary Owen”. It has been confirmed by Byron Weaver that the name was derived from his Regiments marching song. The USA has a further 3 contenders followed by Poland with 2, Germany with 5, United Kingdom with South Africa with 4 and Kuwait with 1.
The longer training flights are now giving the contestants valuable experience and kilometres on the wing.
Whilst the winning pigeons completed 257km. (160miles), pigeons 500 to 1000 completed 296km (185 miles). Pigeons 1001 to 1500 completed 309km (193 miles) , 1501 to 2000 completed 318km (199 miles), 2001 to 2500 completed 332km (208 miles), 2501 to 3000 completed 358km (223 miles), 3001 to 3500 completed 431km (269 miles) The distances the later pigeons completed is anyone’s guess as no doubt some choose to do it at their leisure!
Judging from the general condition and taking the class of the contestants into consideration the road forward looks promising. We trust this thought won’t invoke the wrath of the vindictive gods.
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