Tuesday, August 28, 2012

BRR August Ride Part 3

Righto, so Part 2 had us catching a breather after some great gravel on Maunga Road.  After the pause in proceedings we saddled back up and left the gravel behind for a while as we made our way along Ormonville-Te Uri Road and then turned onto Te Uri Road for another short stretch of tar.

After a few km of Te Uri Road we turned off onto a fantastic paper road that we have ridden previously, although this time we were riding in the opposite direction.  This is a neat little track that takes you across some nice farm country.  Once again Colin had given the farmer a courtesy call prior to the ride to let him know that there were a heap of bikes passing through.  We also took it pretty quietly as there's plenty of stock to contend with and it is lambing season.


Popping out on Rotohiwi Road we now rode a big loop with lots of fast gravel and a few stretches of tar to take us nearly to Porangahau before cutting back West back to Te Uri.

Wallingford Road
From Te Uri Road we turned off again to head slightly South West on Mangahei Road.  This was the start of another loop that took in yet more good gravel and eventually had us back onto Weber Road for the run back into Danniverke and our lunch stop.

After a great steak sammie and some fuel in Danniverke we were off again retracing our steps out Weber Road before turning South East on Waitahora Road and heading in the general direction of Pongaroa.  More good gravel took us onto Towai Road which winds it's way up onto the top of the ranges and past the fertiliser (I think) works you can see in the video.  We also had to stop for a wee while to admire the great scenery.


Following our short break we dropped back down the hill and after some more good gravel ended up on the Pahiatua-Pongaroa Road but instead of going left into Pongaroa, we went right to take us towards some more interesting gravel.

The interesting gravel was on Rimu Road and it wasn't really the gravel that was interesting but some obstacles we had to overcome - see video.


I'm not sure if these obstacles were caused by the forestry operations in the area or by the howling gales that blow through the area.  When we looked back up the hill which the tree had fallen off we could see a lot of trees blown/chopped down and decided that we should make tracks before anything fell on us from above...

Rimu Road eventually ended at Route 52 having passed South of Pongaroa and after a quick sprint down 52 we stopped briefly at Tiruamea before tackling the piece of road that had had me worried before the ride...

Tiruamea

2 comments:

  1. Great ride reports and what a great turn out!

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    1. Just missing a Jafa on a Bemwa eh Roger?

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