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| 2014-11-13 ckick for more photo's |
13/11/2014
Haast Township to Makarora
We
awoke to blue skies and a cold wind which despite a complete change
of direction for the day was once again head-on. The expected
prevailing wind would have been on our backs so we felt sightly
cheated but most people do today’s route in cloud and rain and we
had perfect sunshine all day so we didn't mind the wind too much.
The
first 45 kms were a gentle ride along the valley floor but when the
gradient changed it was brutal and sustained. We had agreed to break
the climb up into a 300m and 200m section with a drink stop at the
side of the road in between and in this way the climb wasn't too bad.
In the Kennett book the ride from the summit to Makarora is described
as 20 kms of freewheeling downhill. Unfortunately for us the headwind
turned this into a slog. All in all it was a beautiful day riding
with not too much traffic either. I wonder what it would be like in
high season though since the traffic nearly solely consists of hire
camper vans.
We
did stop to look at the roadside maps of the Gillespie track which we
may well do later as a tramp with Janneke and Simon. The river
crossing we would have to make to start the route looked pretty wide
and deep,hopefully the river level will fall in the next 2 weeks.
Makarora
was pretty small with one garage with a shop and cafe attached and we
regretted not having stocked up in Haast. Having said that, we had an amazing meal sitting outside in the sun in the café. Served by a very helpful and friendly barmaid.
Worth repeating.
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| Tutunmarjet in her Pyramid |
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