Day 4 - Hyde to Ranfurly

Day 4: 16 Feb. Hyde to Ranfurly

Leaving the Hyde Hotel

Pretty cool start to the day – tho not raining and not windy – so all good.

I only had 30km to go to Ranfurly, so after a better breakfast including muesli & yoghurt but NO coffee, I loaded up Maggie and we headed off.

Just around the corner I decided to set up the Gro Pro and found that I had forgotten the helmet attachment, so a few minutes spent cussing that….  But I set up the camera mount for the little camera just to take some stills. 

first tunnel only 151m  

There was a tunnel first up but it was only 151m, so that was easy, so headed off along the track.   As yesterday, the trail is pretty rough with loose gravel, so there isn’t much gawping around, but it is manageable.  In some places it’s quite rough but in others the gravel is smaller and more compacted. 

I saw heaps of bunnies hopping around, even a little black rabbit, but he had no basket of carrots, so I pedalled on.  I did spy a flock of wild turkeys down on an irrigated paddock, but they totally ignored me as turkeys often do!

There were a couple of nice creeks flowing along and some examples of the schist cliffs with the erosion caused by freezing pretty evident.  But generally it’s not that riveting scenery, being mainly cleared land for farming.  The distance views of the ranges all around are quite nice tho.

from the top of Prices viaduct

Today’s ride was basically pretty flat with maybe some false flats as they are called, just slowly riding up but not enough to make one puff. 

another bridge

Lunch was at Wapiata Pub – cheese, tomato & lettuce sanga with a ginger beer – all nice and filling.  Then back onto the road for another pedal of about 10km and arriving in Ranfurly. 

Ranfurly is renown for its art deco buildings and yes, I guess they are.  But people seem friendly enough.  In fact, it is a bit like being in rural Aus – very similar feel and out here the accent is pretty strong – like “putting in ya pun is the only way of paying for thungs”.  Someone at the pub tonight was talking about sux – 6 – and it just didn’t sound aOK – but then an old gentleman in charge of the art deco museum didn’t think I had an aussie accent at all….  Wot can that mean??

The hostel was previously the old post office and it had quite a nice charm about it all.  Clean and fairly friendly, but they didn’t offer free wifi as backpackers ‘took advantage of it’….. I had a room to myself, so I slept pretty well.

Stats:  38.4km travelled – only 14.3kph average and 25.3kph max.  the gravel road doesn’t allow for any fast ascents or descents J