Day 3 - Dunedin to Hyde - Friday

Day 3:  15 Feb. 13

Got all my gear into the panniers and onto my bike and cruised down the hill to the Railway Station.  

No worries getting bike into luggage van – with the help of the guard – one of those high steps up again.

Train very interesting – all wood panelling and pressed iron ceiling.  Very gracious… But rough as, swaying and bumpy all the way so very hard to get good photos as well as the usual dirty window syndrome.

The old track winds up through Taieri Gorge alongside the river with spectacular cliffs and canyons.  In some places the track rattles along ledges with deep drops to the river below – other times it spans the gorge on very old wrought iron viaducts – a tad spooky, but it’s just chugging along. 

There are a lot of introduced weeds in the form of pine, willow, birch plus general weeds and it was a fair way in before we started to see their ‘tea-tree’ – kanuka maybe??  It is also very dry and brown in between, so I think most of the publicity shots are taken winter or early spring…  but generally a very interesting trip.

old railway station turned into private holiday home
no electricity or phone  

It took 2 ½ hours to get to Middlemarch, which is situated in a wide valley.  Very small town now, but the café food of vegie stack was more than enough to get me fuelled up for the trip. 

So at 1pm, I set off along the Otago Rail Trail.  First amazing thing was that the wind was gentle and coming from behind!!!  The track is loose gravel and not far in, it was really loose gravel and for about 5km it was careful riding and not much looking around.  I stopped a few times to take photos of the wide valley and farmlands. 

 

The hill range reminds me of a somewhat inflated version of the range north of Ardrossan on the way to Pt Pirie.  Is it the Hummocks, or Dunes or something like that?  Will Google it when I am in range again…  maybe

Generally, I was just tootling along minding my own business, but I did pass about 17 riders going the other way.  Only a couple were loaded with panniers, the rest were on rented bikes and some were looking like they hadn’t ridden for awhile and were wondering what they were doing.  But all said a cheery Hello and we continued onwards.

I rolled into Hyde, settled my booking but was informed the Oubliette wasn’t available as there was an issue with the lock, but they had put me up in another room for the same price.  So alls well. 

A nice hot shower followed and a load of washing on (Finland take note!!)

Clouds are looming blackly, but the locals reckon it’s not going to rain, so hopefully my clothes will be dry before bedtime.  It is dry and warmish here, but with a nip in the air.  Apparently it can be very hot if there are no clouds and no wind here….  Or so they say 

  

Evening meal is a small stroll down the road to the Old School House – cheese & dip platter entrée,  Spinach & Feta tartlet, followed by lemon meringiue & ice-cream .  Sweet!  Washed down with a cold beer – good stuff!

Stats:  29.54km - 15.4kph average - 21.8kph max