Today was nothing but hurt. I’ll blow some mobile bandwidth so you can see.
I slept in my tent in Omakau and the temperature got close to zero. But then later in the day it cooked, as the temperature rocketed up to 31 degrees.
The killer is the temperature: 9 degrees when I set out (and colder over night) and 31 degrees when I was pushing my fat arse up the hills.
I couldn’t drink enough water to keep up with the heat and the exercise, and today was all about pain.
Rail trail going off!
The Central Otago Rail Trail, between Alexandra and Cromwell is going off like prawns in the sun! Between Oturehua and Alexandra, not so much
Undoubtably, the engineering marvel of the trail around Lake Dunstan, and the two points of economic concentration has a lot to do with it.
Together with e-bikes, which has lowered the pain threshold for biking activity, every man and his dog have jumped on a bike at Alex or Cromwell and cycled to the other area.
Ending just in time for a chardonnay.
The track itself has areas of technical complexity. Just enough to put the willies up the non-cyclist and give them an “adventure” they can talk about back at the office. And that’s perfect too: this is what the tracks were designed for.
It did mean the track today was stupidly busy with lots of commercial provider vans at the start of the trail issuing ebikes to anxious riders looking to start. With the usual bunch of ice cream-licker behaviour: like the goose who stood on the narrow bridge at the bottom of the steep riding bits to “admire the view” and put himself and other riders in danger.
Alexandra is pretty
It reminds me of Sedona in Arizona. Arizona is pretty much desert, but there’s this odd patch which sticks up into elevation around Flagstaff and Sedona. What makes Sedona pretty is the buildings are integrated into the colours of the surrounding environment. Rather than stick out like a dog’s dick, the buildings integrate and increase the attractiveness of the location.
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I felt the same way about Alexandra – I feel it could really be a lovely place to retire to.
Here’s a link to the high def pic 🙂
Back under the stars for a big push tomorrow to do the highest hill on this ride: Duffer’s Saddle. I don’t like I’m in a tent before this, but sometimes we don’t get to choose how things pan out.