Thursday, March 20, 2014

Day 17: Spinning my wheels.

March 14th 2014
Distance cycled: 15 km
Total distance to date: 903 km

Today was another strange day. Today I must have done close to 50km but the majority of that was nullified since I had to turn back a little over halfway through. I am spending the night at a place that is maaaaaaybe 15km from where I spent last night. I blame it all on the guidebook. 

When I woke up, it was 8am. I thought it wouldn't be too far to the next town. So I skipped breakfast, didn't bother with applying sunscreen, and jaunted down the trail. Turns out that I have underestimated how long it takes me to bike on a trail vs. on the road. It took me 2.5 hours to finish 15 km - and that was with a bit of cheating by riding on the highway and skipping the trail in a few places, which my guidebook doesn't recommended as the highway has no shoulder. 

Oh, my guidebook. This guidebook, which is otherwise extremely helpful in getting me across New Zealand, today took me down a weird path after lunch.  For the first 15km it was fine. Great, even. Beautiful farmland, smooth road. More uphill than I would have liked, but otherwise fantastic riding. Then the road turned to gravel. 

Gravel, I have learned, is never my friend. After about 1km, I came to a dead end, with a little path leading off to the left that didn't look bike-friendly. I doubled back on the gravel road and found a sign that had the name of the track posted. So it was that path. I went back and started down it. It was a rough, overgrown walking track. Not much further down, I came to a narrow swing bridge. 


It was too narrow to get the bike across without removing the panniers. So I removed them and slowly pushed the unloaded bike across, trying to not look down too much. 


Silly little swing bridge! Real swing bridges look like this (I cycled over this earlier in the day):


On the other side was a gully followed by overgrown path leading up a steep hill. If I was getting my bike up that, I'd be carrying it, and then doubling back for my panniers. Plus, I didn't know the condition or the length of the old logging road that was meant to take me all the way to the start of the Timber Trail, which is the next leg of my trip.

Instead of doing all that, I decided to take my bike back across the ridiculous swing bridge, back up the gravel road, and back the way I came. It was so frustrating to know that I was undoing my entire day. At least it was mostly downhill on the way back, so it only took an hour or so to backtrack. I set my sights on Mangakino, only 9km away from the cafe where I'd had my lunch and midday coffee. It became my mantra that I chanted to myself to get me through the frustration: "Mangakino, Mangakino, Mangakino."

In Mangakino, all I wanted was food and a decent campsite. I found the only grocery store in town and bought $20 worth of stuff, mostly comfort food. Cookies, bananas, a Cadbury creme egg. The lady at checkout said there was a big storm coming tonight. Great, that's the last thing I needed! I coasted down to the lakefront to eat and recover from my day, and to consider what to do for the night. 

A cafe at the lakefront, the Bus Stop Cafe, had some locals sitting at it. They asked me where I'd come from. I must have looked like something the cat dragged in because one of the ladies immediately offered me her spare room. Maybe it was because of the storm, or maybe she's just really kind, but it's because of Heather that I had a hot shower and a roof over my head tonight. Tomorrow, after the storm hits and hopefully passes, I'll try again for the Timber Trail - taking the highway there this time. 

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