BRR Damn the Duke Part Two

So, we left off last night with most of our merry band pulling into "the Duke" for a late lunch.

Here we were reunited with three of our missing riders but were still missing the two who had gone in search of them...

A well deserved lunch was quickly ordered and bike gear removed so we could sit in the sun without melting.  A cold drink was also very welcome after the morning's ride and there was even a new bike to gawk at as Colin had turned up on his new Wee - I forgot to get some snaps of it though, doh!

After lunch it was time to take a really interesting route back to Dannevirke.  First up was a steep climb out of Porangahau on Old Hill Road.  It's a good thing that the first bit of the road was tar as I spent a fair bit of time with my eyes off the road looking at the spectacular views out across Porangahau to the beach.  I'll stop there one day for some pics...Oh and the road did eventually go to gravel...

Old Hill Road eventually spat us out onto Porangahau Road which we followed towards Waipuk only until turning off to take Blackhead Road back to the coast.  After dropping back down the hill the tarseal road then becomes the most delicious gravel that you'd ever find.  I'd ridden it before and enjoyed it and on this occasion it was just as good - I think the video may demonstrate how much fun it was...

At the end of Blackhead Road we went left (instead of right and down to the beach) and made our way back yet again to Porangahau Road via some reasonably nice tar.  But we still hadn't finished with the gravel and turned off again to take in more back roads including some more good gravel.  It's here I get a bit lost with my video recordings - I have some video but can't remember which road is which so we'll just skip the video and carry on with the action.

It was now getting later in the afternoon and the low sun was a bit of a pain when trying to pick a line through the gravel so I definitely dialed it back a little and tried my best to duck down so the peak of my helmet blotted out the bright sun.

Our next bit of excitement was a certain Triumph coming into difficulties about oh, 15km from Danniverke and the nearest petrol station...Luckily we had a Kawasaki petrol tanker with us and were able to transfer some petrol between bikes.  Also luckily, the battery on my camera was not completely flat so I could document the operation...

How embarrassing!

Arriving back in Dannevirke we all went our separate ways, some stopping for coffee and others (including me) high-tailing it for home.  I did have one more stop for fuel in Woodville as my fuel gauge dropped to it's last bar immediately on leaving Dannevirke...I probably would have made it home ok but I didn't have a KLR accompanying me so played it safe.

In the end I got home just before 6pm after what was a reasonably eventful back road ride but a very enjoyable one.  Where are we going next Neil?

More pics here.