Oh it feels good to be back on the bike. We’re not long back from an overseas holiday and while we did take our bikes with us we didn’t do a whole lot of biking – four days in total over three weeks. What we did do was a lot of walking, and feeling like we’d built up a good fitness base we wanted to continue on that theme now that we’re home.
Well how is it, considering we exercised at least 3 hours EVERY DAY for three weeks, now we’re home we don’t feel any fitter. We thought we’d get out on our bikes and the ride would be a breeze – let me tell you now Categorically NOPE.
In fairness the thing with this ride is it is actually a gentle incline the entire way from Camerons just north of Greymouth to the Kapitea Reservoir in behind Kumara. Also and this one is important – we rode like cut cats. Seriously I had to say to Stephen can we button back a bit on the pace. He of course said he was just trying to keep up with me which was so incorrect cos I was just trying to keep up with him……..
Moaning aside this ride is gorgeous. Crossing the clip-on attached to the Taramakau road/rail bridge reminded me of our ride across the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco – ok so maybe couple of slight differences – not as high, not as long and nowhere near as many people to negotiate with on the way across (make that none!).
The Kumara tram-line was so green – I know we have lots of green but I’d almost…. almost forgotten just how green everything is here – all shades of green in all directions. Just beautiful.
It was generally quite an overcast day making the skies a bit wishy/washy but the views of the snow-capped mountains and reflections in the Kapitea Reservoir were still spectacular.
Made the mistake of eating far too much for lunch at the Theatre Royal Hotel – but it was delicious. That’s my excuse for feeling a bit sluggish on the ride back to town. All in all though it was nice to be back on the West Coast Wilderness Trail – it’s a great asset for the district and a great way to see some diverse West Coast scenery.
