Saturday – There was a strange glow in the sky, which I
eventually recognised as the sun! After
a week of heavy rain the weather gods had decided to grant an early preview of
spring... but my program called for a night ride! While considering this I dropped Shane off to
go exploring in the Tawatawa reserve area and parked by the beach to enjoy the
rare treat of reading a book in the warmth of the sun!
Eventually I decided on compromise, so headed out along the
coastal trail at QE park towards Raumati
at around 4. I chose this route as one
least likely to be knee deep in mud, as well as to not cause any damage to the
waterlogged trails. From Raumati it was
back to the main gates of QEP, then up the hill through Whareroa Farm. Splash through the stream, slosh through a
short muddy stretch, then climb, climb, climb up to Campbells Mill Rd, then on
to the forest gate. It was pretty hard
to keep breathing and admire the scenery all at once, but I managed OK.
I was treated to a beautiful sunset on my way
back down, then finished off with a final loop of the Coastal track as darkness
closed in. Nothing like a ride in the
sun to recharge my (solar) batteries!
The rain started at a scarily early hour on Sunday and never
really stopped! The forecast was for
clearing skies in the afternoon, so I waited... and waited... yep, still raining! Oh, well – a good opportunity to test my new
waterproof socks, if nothing else! (I
find this kind of weather hard to dress for, as being comfortably warm on the
descents usually means baking inside my own personal sauna on the climbs! So – today’s
option was minimal layers with a waterproof outer.) I headed out from home for
a modified version of yesterday’s ride.
Funnily enough, there were very few people out and about (no bikers)
compared to yesterday! Between the
weather, the damper surface and my slightly toasted legs the riding was much
slower today – but it was still good to be out and about rather than on the
wind trainer! The little stream that I
splashed through yesterday had doubled in size, so I decided to wade through
rather than risk total body immersion!
FYI ‘waterproof’ socks aren’t designed to cope with this kind of
treatment! My feet were wet, but warm,
for the rest of the ride! Slosh through
the muddy paddock, slog up the wet clay climb, along Campbell’s Mill road,
dodge the big scary cow/bull/dinosaur hiding in the corner (I wasn’t game to
hang around to find out for sure!), turn around and head for home. No photos today, just find something grey to
look at and that pretty much sums up today’s viewing! Finished up tired but satisfied... and rinsed all of my wet weather gear in the
shower!
