Nampo has become a bit of an annual pilgrimage for us every year. We usually borrow a bunch of bikes, grab a group of mates and try not to freeze our butts off in the late autumn as the sun starts to make an appearance in the eastern skies. Then we ride home in the dark and inevitably in an unseasonably late and usually quite wild thunderstorm. This year was a little bit different, firstly we didn’t go on bikes, and we weren’t the usual motley crue of reprobates. The workload in the office was just too much and we could only spare one lonesome ranger to cover the event. But we did have a bike brand represented, we bummed a lift with Kyle from Suzuki Motorcycles SA in his 5-Door Jimny.
The first NAMPO Harvest Day was held in 1967, in 1974 the NAMPO Harvest Day was established on a permanent terrain outside Bothaville, which is today known as NAMPO Park. It is definitely one of our favourite shows, the diversity of the exhibitors opens your eyes to all sorts of new and interesting technology and innovations and the fact that it is held from Tuesday to Friday in a fairly remote area keeps the crowds fairly well controlled as well. The Journey through the countryside and the relaxed farm atmosphere really does make it a great day out. The food and beverage stalls are generally run by local church or charity organisations and everybody is also fairly considerate of those around them with many happy waves and friendly grins.
Grain SA, who own and run the event, have got the logistics waxxed…. almost. There are plenty of toilets all pristinely maintained and super clean, lots of shady green lawns to recover a bit of your energy after cruising around the massive show ground and multitude of halls. Food and drink vendors are plentiful, local radio station, OFM, keeps the atmosphere going from their ‘Outside Broadcast’ studios on site, even if you aren’t involved in agriculture in any way or form this is really just a lekker day out and a hugely interesting show to attend. We said ‘almost’ waxxed, the drive from the East Rand to Bothaville is around 2.5 hours if you push it a bit, the drive from the 11 km drive from the intersection the Nampo’s gate takes another hour and 10 minutes, bear this in mind and maybe limit your intake of fluids during the journey.
We got to the park, hobbled through the ticket booths and made a b-line for the bogs, normally there is only a queue outside the ‘child bearing’ ablutions, however, the queue outside the ‘ball bearing’ ablutions was at least 10 times longer – so much so we considered donning our heels, skirts and lipstick and joining the first line.
Officially, we go along to cover what all the motorcycle exhibitors are up to. In reality we stick our noses in everywhere, because we just love it all. As mentioned, we drove down with Suzuki SA and wandered onto their stand first, on the aptly named ‘Suzuki Blvd’. As usual, their stand was impeccable and a highlight for just about every show goer. We found an interesting new Suzuki motorcycle on display, the all new Suzuki GSX-S 1000 GX which we will be riding around the mountain passes of Mpumalanga during the Suzuki Weekend Away shortly and will let you know all about it on www.ridefast.co.za soon afterwards.
Next we wandered along the South African Motorcycles BIG BOY stand which was as busy as ever and plying roaring trade. Another exhibitor was silly enough to give up their spot and Big Boy snapped it up and were busy eyeing other nearby stands with intent. They tell us that NAMPO has been such a good show for them over the last nine years that they will never give up their spot and will scoop up any other spots that become available close to them. And we believe them, we could barely chat to them for all the enquiries from the punters flowing through their stand.
Cruising through one of the other stands we came across Turkana Gear, a brand we are not terribly familiar with but it does look very interesting. After a bit of a chat with Michnus and Elsebie we would definitely like to find out a lot more about the brand and the product, it does look very lekker and incredibly well thought out. On the same stand, just around the corner, we found Mark from SBK Eyewear, run off his feet a little bit for all the customers around his display. It did take a bit of time to squeeze through the crowds and on off that stand.
Only to make our way onto another very busy stand, that of Vermont Sales and Tork Craft, with their “Bargain Bin” a very big attraction. Their show specials kept a throng of excited customers wandering around the stand, we had to exercise huge self restraint and to pull ourselves away with our wallets desperately trying to hide away in the deepest darkest corners of our pockets.
Along the way we happened upon the BMW Motorrad Klerksdorp stand. It was busy-ish but we couldn’t really find anybody to chat to so we moved along, no time to hang around, lots of terrain to cover and people to see. Smith Power Equipment was in their usual spot with a very nice set up as is their norm, we found some of the team cowering in the shade from the late autumn African early afternoon sun, but they were still smiling. Business was good as usual, it really does seem that Nampo is a worthwhile event for everybody. A little bit down the road from them we found the team from Waterworld with their Can-Am and CF Moto brands and they were all smiling from ear to ear.
Cruising around we happened upon a heck of an interesting stand that had us intrigued immediately. Nothing would make us happier than to strap a solar panel to our helmet and give Petro SA and Eskom the big middle finger as we tear off into the distance on an electrically powered motorcycle. E-Tec Alternative Energy Solutions had various vehicles and motorcycles on their stand and after a long chat we managed to secure an invitation to their secret mountain hideaway R&D facility for a closer gander – keep an eye on www.dirtandtrail.co.za for that story in the next week or two. These guys are obviously on to something good, even Google wouldn’t allow us onto their website no matter how many advanced settings we tried.
By now the sun had apexed and was aiming deeply into the western skies, so we had to pick up the pace quite a bit to complete a lap of Nampo Park and stop in at FAST KTM, for a quick chin wag. Nate has built an amazing mobile shop in a mobile rig towed behind a big truck, and it was a very popular attraction many, many 450 and 500cc KTM’s are being boomed around farms all across Africa, and South Africa especially.
By now the light was fading and we just managed to slip into the passenger seat of the Jimny as it was pulling out of the substantial parking lot and aiming itself towards home. Another year, another Nampo…. And we are already looking forward to next year’s show.
And….. that was Nampo Harvest Day Show 2024
