Sting in the trail

Camp Epic to Taumarunui

68.4km

Today I got my legs back. For context you'll have to wait until I get the opportunity to rewrite yesterday's post.

This morning dawned cold and misty. Everything that was not under cover was dripping wet. We (Marg) had the foresight to move the drying/airing line into the kitchen area, so the cycling gear was merely cold, not cold and wet. Unlike the bikes and the tent. We realised the tent inner and fly don't really have enough separation, so where they'd been pushed together as we moved around, both were soaked through. It was packed up very wet, but dried out rapidly in the blazing sunshine after we got here.

I'm not sure we got our money's worth at breakfast, from the large selection available, especially as I finished the dehy Chicken Madras left over from last night. We got away at 9, despite having woken at 6. Don't really know how some people manage to pack up their camp and be on the road within 30 minutes. Today was going to be a tough one by our standards, with the second half of the Timber Trail, then 24km on to Taumarunui. It started with a short downhill, then a pretty consistent climb, but we'd barely got going when we came across a tree across the track. It clearly wasn't from last night (there was no wind) as it was obvious people had already pushed or lifted their bikes around it. We decided to make a wider space and started pulling and breaking branches. We were soon joined by a couple we'd bumped into a couple of times yesterday, and between us we cleared an easy push-through passage on the track. No sooner had we finished than  a group of 6 cyclists who had passed us early yesterday arrived to benefit from our labour. The trail then led to a delightful winding single-track through the trees, though the roots and rocks kept us shaken, while also stirred by our surroundings.

We soon reached the Maramataha swing bridge, the first and biggest of several similarly impressive strutures along the route, which of course required a break to read the info boards and take photos. We'd decided to take in as much of the history of the area and the trail as possible, so stopped regularly at various points of interest. The surroundings were maturing regenerated bush, unsurprising as the area was logged out between 100 to 60 years ago. Lots of big ponga, graceful young rimu, the odd mature totara, and the occasional clump of lancewood.

We climbed steadily but relatively easily to the old logging tram terminus, and joined the 'mostly downhill' tramway. The day had started to heat up, and the cool, dark cuttings gave a welcome respite. The track conditions continued to vary enormously, from smooth new metal to rutted and rough dirt and rock. And the occasional mudhole. One might expect a former tramway to be relatively smooth, but recall this was abandoned 60 or so years ago and only reinstated around 2010. Although at a break at the bottom of a long descent on smooth, fine metal, we were grinning from ear-to-ear. There we briefly rejoined  Graham and Lloyd, who had passed us earlier, who claimed to have clocked 40kph...

There followed a long, gradual ascent, the frequent changes in surface making for slow progress at times. On the profile it looks like you have a long, steady descent to the Ongarue Spiral, but in reality much of it is too rough to make rapid progress. We got to the spiral around lunchtime, but could not find anywhere shady to sit, so we pressed on.

As we were only 11km from the end of the TT we decided to continue, expecting to find some kind of shelter at the end. What we hadn't reckoned with was the final 4km of rough single-track, tracking along the bank of a stream. Our guide's only reference to this was 'The single-track ends at...'

From the end of the TT we were back on the road, following the gravel Ongarue Back Road. Where we parted from the sealed road into Ongarue village, a fully laden logging truck parked up at the junction did not bode well, but although the road was clearly being used for logging operations, we only encountered one vehicle. Mind you, that did bowl past at speed, covering us in a patina of grey dust. This road followed the same basic route as the main trunk rail line (and also the busy main road), crossing it a number of times. At the first level crossing, Marg advised caution crossing the line, such a redundant warning that I replied 'What, the one train a day?', to which it was pointed out that there are also freight trains. With appropriate irony, just as we were about to cross the second level crossing, the red lights started to flash, and with a blast of its horn a huge, long freight train rounded the blind bend. We sat for a while as it trundled past in front of us!

The gravel turned to seal, our speed increased as Marg let rip on the battery power, and my legs pumped regularly as if they could go on forever. Bliss, but bloody hot in the open countryside. As we rode into Taumarunui we were treated to another distant view of Mount Ruapehu.

The day was rounded off by a delicious Thai dinner with our friends Sandy & Ken, en route from Tauranga to Blue Duck Station at Whakahoro. With the added bonus that our camping gear is being transported there so we'll be more lightly loaded tomorrow.

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