Excited by a day of almost entirely new terrain, the only large section of places unfamiliar to me on the route, it was one of the earlier starts during a week of leisurely departures. That said, it was only six-thirty – so plenty of light as we were soon back on route and past the Shaky Bridge leaving Alexandra. Brian caught up as we searched for the correct gate to begin the climb up onto the Knobby Range.
The three of us would ride together for the rest of a day where we were treated to pleasingly engaging climbs, and a thirty degree temperature drop from the previous day – a southerly change overnight didn’t start off too bad considering we were riding south. Fragrant thyme heavy in the air is always one of the special delights of riding around this area, and no different on this morning as any overnight moisture evaporated.
Brian and Eileen catching some morning light soon after leaving Alexandra. Looking across to the Dunstans, with the Pisas just peeking through in the background.
Route finding for the most part was straightforward following the track through an increasing number of rocks.
Skirting the farm buildings about halfway up, the gradient kicked up suddenly. I misunderstood “it’s only two hundred metres” as horizontal distance – so worth a crack, having pushed a bit of the lower climb; only to find it was two hundred metres vertical. Still, I could just manage it and I wasn’t stopping now.
More spot the rider.
Dark clouds rolled through, but the sunlight stuck with us.
The wind was getting up and some of the clouds were looking ominous, but the rain stayed away from us on this entire section, and it wasn’t too cold yet even with the strengthening southerly. It looked bleak up on the Old Man Range, very pleased not to be up there this time.
Undulating across the top, rolling downhill a nice change before climbing again.
As Dave commented later, a real cross section of gate history up here. This one probably the oldest, very pleasing to see the Hayes Engineering shackle from just down the road in Oturehua.
From the trig, it was only a few kilometres down through farmland before hitting the largest part of the descent to Roxburgh on fast gravel.
Down to the Clutha, with the Umbrella Mountains behind.
An easy ten kilometres alongside the river and we were in Roxburgh for an early lunch, reflecting on an excellent morning ride in pleasingly benign conditions (compared with the previous day’s heat and sun, and the coming afternoon).
Certainly was worth lingering over a large lunch and pot of tea at 103 The Store – highly recommended.
Generally heading east for the eight hundred metres of gain to the highpoint before dropping to Lake Onslow, at times the southerly was with us, at time against us. It definitely cooled down, occasional cold rain and then light hail blowing in our faces, we were soon reaching for more layers. However, it was mostly dry and, while steep in parts, there was so much variety in the climb (rolling downhill at times) and the textures of the cultivated and relatively untouched land that there was always something to look at.
At the summit after three hours, I wasn’t hanging around long with temperatures at freezing and the wind strong – not to mention now at our back for much of the next ninety kilometres.
Brian climbing away from the Lake Onslow fishing huts.
Past the dam wall, it was definitely time to find a spot at least slightly sheltered from the southerly for significant refuelling – most of that lunch was well gone from the climb!
Felt a bit bad for startling these sheep out of their place of refuge from the cold wind.
Passing the lake, there was still a little climbing to be done before the long descent to the Upper Taieri. I enjoyed a different perspective of the formation of the river that loops all the way around the Rock and Pillars, usually seen by me climbing the Old Dunstan Road out of Paerau (third photo looks back to where we were on this time around, on a much brighter day). Losing elevation, things did brighten for us as the rocky landscape returned.
With the tailwind and long descent, albeit with many gates to be opened, progress certainly sped – but I think we were all feeling the effects of a long day and being up in the weather, which was a whole lot better than it could have been thankfully. Guy caught us as we stopped for more snacks before the fifty-odd kilometres of skirting the base of Rough Ridge and cutting across the Maniototo Plain to Ranfurly.
Funny to see our place of refuge in a big southerly front on the last GSB in sunlight; the bees certainly less dormant this time!
The evening was pleasant, but we were slowing – Ranfurly was a long way off.
Surprised to still have riding buddies after I inexplicably made a wrong term (thankfully soon corrected) – still no idea why there was no thought process behind that. Tired enough that “see turn, make turn” is quite reasonable?!
Into town at eight-thirty to find a large GSB crew at the pub, happily fed – we were pleased to get pizzas with the kitchen already shut and then off to a cosy cabin at the holiday park, where they couldn’t have been friendlier. Another big day on this GSB, my favourite by far – love seeing new places, not to mention a good climb or two. Very tired, I actually slept through the whole night for the first time in a week.