The Statistics
Angels and Saints
Angels: Big E – Evan MacClure
Big E (Evan) drove past me as I was leaving Isolated Flats. Evan had just finished the 8 March wave and was just driving past.
Big E gave me an apple and an Easter Bun – it was only then that I realised it was Good Friday.
Evan and I chatted about his experience, bike set up and the Sounds to Sounds ride in general. It was kinda surreal to find another S-2-S rider out here on the border of Isolated Flats in The Molesworth.
Evan gave me his card as asked me to look him up when I get to the Southern Canterbury component of the ride 🙂
Really nice guy. Thank you Evan 🙂
Saints: Vic Sefton and Julia!!!
Completely unexpectedly, Vic Sefton and Julia turned up!
Frequent readers will know Vic has been a mentor to me throughout this ride, and previously during her Tour of Aotearoa.
All of my tips and tricks I’ve gotten from either Vic or John Keene, and it was her cycle build I ripped off for this ride, including the idea of a bladder in the frame bag of my bike.
Vic and Julia had made an epic journey from Christchurch, and pick me off from the road, feed me sausage sandwiches, coffee, coke, and a couple of trail nibbles.
I give hugs (lots of them) and got a little bit emotional. They were more than Trail Angels – they’re Trail Saints.
I owe Vic a large debt of gratitude for her advice and encouragement.
Purr, purr, purr, purr, purr 🙂
Photos or it Never Happened
Sign at Ward Pass
The sign at the top of Ward Pass – the highest part of the Molesworth Station component of the trip – is a compulsory photo: proof you were there.
I’m starting to sport a Dirty Sanchez under my lip (don’t look that up on Google, this is a family friendly blog… you have been warned) and I’m looking forward to a rest day.
As well as pictures, I like to take the sounds of the environments I’m in.
The sound at the top of Ward Pass. That hum you can hear is the high voltage electric power lines which are the back boned to New Zealand’s electricity grid.
One of my favourite websites is mynoise.net. Dr Stephane Pidgeon travels the world collecting sounds. My favourite is Japanese Garden and Windy Mansion, especially the pictures of the Belgium mansion itself. So, for me, sight and sound go together.
Subdivision Dream
Truly a place where this is nobody around you for miles (… except Evan.. and Vic and Julia… and the 5 ute load of visitors…)
Anyway. This is a wide open space, where you only companion is the electricity grid.
The Mediative Effect of Long Distance Cycling
Something happens to your head when you do long distance cycling like this.
The constant peddling has its own rhythm which becomes mediative and you enter into one of those trance states that I imagine the American Indians must get when whacked out on ayahuasca.
Small thoughts start to grow in your head. For example, as I was cycling next to the National Grid, I started thinking of the Wichta Linesman song.
And then I started thinking who is the Wichta Linesman? Is he a loner? Does he like being outside the group, always looking in, listening to the conversation of others, but never being part of the conversation. Is he a little bit like me?
Is the Wichta Linesman, just like a cowboy? Is being a cowboy my spirital animal? Are these pylons like a cattle dog for me? A constant companion on my journey through this desolate plain?
Your head really does wander. All to the constant mediative rhythm of one peddle after the other.
Pictures or it Never Happened
