Rail Trail Adventure

So we Biked the Otago Central Rail Trail on the weekend!!! its 150 kms (yup one hundred and fifty kilometers, a very long way!!!) and we actually did it!!!

Mum and Meredith B came down for the weekend and we all biked it together. The best way to describe it really is as an ADVENTURE!!!

For anyone who doesnt know, the rail trail goes through Central Otago, which is some of the prettyest scenery in Otago and runs from Middlemarch to Clyde or the other way. In the olden days there was a railway line but when the railway stopped they took up the tracks and made it into a bike track. so there isnt too much steep climbs and its reallly nice away from the road.

So our trip...

We had a few mishaps along the way partucully with our baggage. we decided to do it the cheats way and have our bags taken to each nights accomodation for us. it turned out at teh last minute that we couldnt get our bags for the last night but we resolved that evenutually.

So we all got up really early on saturday morning, all keen and ready to get on the road. i took our stuff down to the railway station to get it picked up but i waited , and i waited but no-one came, so i flagged after about half an hour. so that was the first set back...

we put our stuff in mums car and drove off, but when we got about half way to Middlemarch we realised that we'd left the bus bags in my car!!! so we had to go back!!! o my gosh it was such a mission getting there!!! by the time we actually got going on our bikes it was about lunch time!!!

The first day is 60kms!! that is a really long way, we didn't really quite realise!! and we were biking really slow, Jeremy worked out that its the 5th time he's ever been on a bike!!! It was a bit overcast so the scenery wasnt great but we could still see a bit and it was lovely.

so we got just past Hyde which is half way and the light was kinda fading, and we ended up biking the last 20kms in the dark!!! so we were going really really slowly with one wee light in the dark, we couldn't see anything and it was raining too!!! there was one spot where there was heaps of mud and we all got stuck!!! and Jeremy fell off his bike, not quite into the mud!!!

we ended up getting to Ranfurley at about 9.30pm. the people at the camping ground were worried about us and had rung the police to organise a search and rescue for us!!! how embarrassing!!! but we made it and they had some hot soup we ate for our tea cos Ranfurley was closed!!!! that was the best nights sleep I've had in ages!!!!

But you know how we weren't meant to be able to have our bags taken to Lauder, well we met some nice people in Ranfurly who were biking the other way and had no way of getting back to ranfurly where their van was. so we gave them mum's keys and they drove mum's car back to ranfurly and got their van and our bags dropped them in lauder in their way back to Omakau where they lived!!! it was awesome!!!

The next day we faffed about a whole lot in the morning and didn't get away till about 11 am. it was really foggy and we couldn't see a lot of scenery but it was still nice riding, a bit of a steep slog up hill to get to Wedderburn where we had lunch at the pub.

after lunch was another steep uphill (not that it was actually steep steep everything less than 1:50 slope cos its the old railway line) to the highest point!! that was an achievement. The fog had lifted a bit by then too so we could see a bit of the scenery which was pretty amazing. it was all down hill from there pretty much and we speed along. even so we still managed to arrive in Lauder in the dark again. but only just.

when we got to lauder we didn't know where to go but there is only about 2 houses in Lauder so we went into the Pub which is the only place with the light on.. the chap there said "o yup we're expecting you", sent us across the road to the place we were staying and said to come back after we had showers for dinner at the pub. the house was amazing, they had the fire going there for us already so it was nice and warm and comfortable.

we had tea in the pub with the nice ladies who took our bags, it was soo great!!!
the next morning we got up really early and were on the road by 8.20 so we could get to Clyde in time to catch the bus, we had a great day riding and it was mostly downhill so was pretty cruzy. and the weather lifted a bit and the sun came out so we even got to see some scenery!!!

overall it was a pretty awesome adventure, we didn't see a lot of the spectacular scenery that is in the area but we saw a bit and it was a huge achievement having biked 150 kms in three days!!!!! wahoo us!

I'm gonna also post some pics of us all in various stages of dissaray on our picassa thingie and get J to put some in here too when he gets home from Ironman

Love Gem