ONE of South Africa’s best-loved bikers, Des Pistorius, died at the age of 79. He was a legend in motorcycle circles throughout South Africa with his long, flowing beard, his beloved dogs and the Honda Gold Wing upon which he travelled more than 1,3 million kilometres in 30 years.
He surprised everybody three years ago when he rebuilt an ancient 200cc Vespa scooter, had a friend manufacture a trailer to pull behind it, and set off with his dog on an 8500km pilgrimage around the perimeter of South Africa – a journey that he completed in about eight weeks.
Des, a rigger by trade, was a thorough gentleman and a good friend. He was also very intelligent, very stubborn and very willing to help anybody at any time. He was a hard worker and many of his friends would be surprised to hear, that for many years, he’d put on his suit and attend opera, classical music evenings and various other live shows at the Playhouse. He gathered an enormous collection of autographed programmes during the decades.
Des hardly ever drove a car, and most people in the Highway area were accustomed to seeing him riding his Honda with first dog Widget, and then, after he died, Boswell perched on the fuel tank. He was never a big talker but listened well and had a great sense of humour. During their Vespa ride he and Boswell ended up in a roadside ditch after their back tyre blew just outside of Port Elizabeth. “When I got up I found my collarbone was broken,” said Des, who wanted to carry on as soon as the tyre was changed, but was eventually persuaded to stay another night. The next morning the twosome set off again, broken collarbone and all, only to experience another blowout in virtually the same place. “I didn’t fall off this time, but we missed a lamp post by about a metre and Boswell was plainly upset by the whole thing. He started walking briskly back towards Durban, but I managed to get him to come back!”
A few weeks later a Durban businessman heading south, down the West Coast, encountered our two happy travellers going the other way – somewhere near Saldanha Bay. He told me he’d noticed a little red dot on the horizon heading up a slow-moving procession of a couple of dozen cars. As it got nearer the dot grew into a little red Vespa and trailer travelling along in the middle of the road at 60 km/h. I called Des at the time to ask about this. “Hell,” he said. “Those people are friendly down there. They all wanted to escort me, and then when they passed they hooted like mad!”
Des Pistorius was a very special man who’ll be missed by thousands of biking and non-biking friends around South Africa and more than a few overseas. He leaves behind his wife, Girlie, sons Errol and Desmond, and daughter Theresa.
