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| Rolling out from Hanmer |
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| 190 kms, 8.30 to 9pm |
Day 2. Around 190 kms. We had a reasonable nights sleep, got our stuff together and
headed off to the nearest cafe for breakfast. It was at this point that
Jonty shared his memorable quote " I tend to steer away from flat whites
in the provinces". After a leisurely brekkie, during which time, Alex's
dad Mike Revell turned up, he had made it through the Molesworth the previous day, but kipped on the roadside rather than come down into Hanmer that night. We hit the smooth tar-seal road for Culverden's Grocery
store about 40kms away, and got there about 10 mins before opening. This
was to be a serious shopping expedition to see us through the Lee
Valley, the Wharfdale and maybe Sheffield.
We hit the road again and before long were surfing on some fresh new
gravel. The damn grader looked like it had been through the previous
day. Bugger..
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| Resting up before our wrong turn |
The next phase was getting into the massive farm of
McDonald downs which was problematic. There can be a lot of variation
over what the 4 bike computers were telling us, so we chose to ignore
the kms on the cue sheets and go by the map. This caused a problem, as
when we went down the appropriate road, a farmer emerged to tell us that
the road was incorrectly named on the LINZ map, and had been for years !
I guess we only lost about 20 mins or so, and he kindly set up a sign
to warn anyone behind us. Plenty of other people had already made the
same mistake before us.
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| Another pinch climb |
Two of our group had done the KB before, but in the other direction.
When asked what the terrain was like I suggested that it was mostly
flat, with a few "pinch-climbs" . This didn't go down well as the climbs
seemed to have a bit more pinch than some were hoping for. We were
eventually glad to be off the gravel and trying to navigate our way
across acres of farm land. Before long we came across a river which we
needed to ford. Not a biggie as it was pretty shallow. We carried on
until we found the entrance to the Wharfdale track which we hoped would
give us some very cool single track to blast through. A few things
worked against us. 1. Our bikes were heavy and unresponsive. 2. It was
uphill with lots of dismounts. 3. It was a bit wet and most of us had
semi-slick tires on the back. We hung out for the descent but we felt a
bit cheated when we learned that it was all open four wheel drive, wet
and foggy, and getting dark. To top it off a wasp stung me under the eye
which caused me to freak a bit. I opted to ride as fast as I could
incase my eye swelled up. Definitely a trail best suited to ride in the
opposite direction.
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| Alex fords river |
We hit the road and shot past the accomodation we used last time
which was the View Hill PonyClub/Tennis courts domain and headed for
Sheffield, about an hour away. What a disappointment. A two shop town.
One a pie shop and one a Pub. All closed by 10pm obviously. No tea for
us other than what we were hauling. It was spitting very lightly so
some form of cover would have been nice. Sleeping in the pub's toilets
didn't appeal, but Andy and I found what was to be our best
accommodation yet. A shelter-belt with masses of dry spaces below it
with comfy pine-needle beds, and plenty of room for our bikes and us. We
needn't have even bothered blowing up our air mattresses. It was mint.
Even the sound of the trains blasting through the night, seemingly metres from our heads couldn't detract from this spot.
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| Matt settles down for the night in the Hedgerow Hilton |
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| Plenty of room in this locale |
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| The front entrance to Hedgerow Hilton |
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| Fueling up near the top of the Wharfdale |
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| Somewhere in the Lee Valley |
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| Jonty in the Wharfdale |
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