Saturday, June 4, 2011

Day 3 - Easy Riders

Ross
What a day riding the narrow mountain roads, like a 150km long series of Takaka hills.  Our bikes and ourselves were well tested - and both were showing their age.  The 160cc bikes are possibly 15 years old and after climbing steeply for 700m at a time we noticed they were struggling to keep up with our requests.  Our biking reflexes are still being rediscovered and in the constant gear changing, braking, accelerating and hunting for the right line the odd missed gear and poor line were inevitable.  The right line was a particular challenging on the 3.5m sealed strip of road.  The insides of most hairpins and many moderate corners were deeply potholed and with no spare power picking a line that would be safe from overloaded trucks and speeding buses was sometimes challenging.  When the roads opened up to sweeping open sections it was even greater fun.
The riding by itself would have been a great day, but the scenery and people made it even more remarkable for this is spectacular kast country with vertical limestone formations, big mountains and other strange geological formations.  As we entered the hills the people changed, with most of the villages being ethnic minorities, many still wearing traditional clothing.   The kids all wave and Vietnamese tourists take pictures of the strange foreign tourists.  Morning tea was from the Hmong market - a variety of deep fried pastries.
Dinner is ready - plenty more for the others to add after dinner.

Len
Bike and rider are operating like...  Well, actually only the bike is well oiled.  Get's its chain done every morning.  Rider is over-enthusiastic and clumsy.  Bike is strong, responsive and forgiving.
May open duty free Chivas Regal this evening.  Best chance of me getting well-oiled I suspect.
Have been called over-enthusiastic and clumsy before but having a mental block about when.
Discussion on merits of naming our bikes after significant others.  Married men instantly reject.  Poor taste, worst idea ever.
Wonder if T-shirt lady is strong, responsive and forgiving.  Wonder what T-shirt lady would look like well-oiled, but quickly dismiss thought as bunking with Mark tonight.
As Ross, said trip today was oarsome.
Everything felt so much better after a good night's sleep.  Head touched pillow at 8:00 pm.  Asleep at 8:01.  Woke at 4:00 and spent some time thinking of family before it got light.  Was reminded of my grandfather who, following grandmother's death, found a young Chinese-Malay companion.  Lilly became a valued family member.   Her work ethic was particularly admired.  In fact, my mother frequently referred to Lilly as a gold-digger, which I took to be a reference to the very hard working Chinese miners who arrived in NZ during the gold rush.  Sadly Lilly had to depart for family reasons shortly after Grandfather became incontinent.  Great pity.
Discover I am best speller in group.
Really had fun today.  Winding roads, superb scenery.  Mossies coming out now so must wind up.
Disclaimer: Any resemblance between this blog and actual persons living or deceased is unintended and completely coincidental.
Additional disclaimer for my mother:  don't worry, no one believes anything they read on the Internet.

Mark
As usual I am allocated the last spot, I think this is due to be being the worst speller and hardly able to string sentences together after a day on the bike and two beers.
I do however think the other two have under stated the day the scenery and the over all impact on all the senses of the day. From high towering hills surrounding us in all directions to the amazing colourful clothing worn by the local people to the mindless speed the local buses coming down or going up the roads.
The ride is like continuously going up and down the Takaka hill (but several times higher) on roads that the average NZ dairy farmer would be looking to spend money on improving, which are probably a third narrower than the Takaka road. Into this throw the buses above, large trucks and numerous motorcycles.
The motorcycle loads range in shape and size, it is not unusual to see mum , dad and several children all on the small scooter going up and down the hills. (Frances - I think a car is probably not needed). One of the loads that stuck in my mind was the scooter dragging behind it a number of huge bamboo logs.
Another impression is one comes down from the mountains into the little villages, the first thing you notice is the road suddenly widens out to well sealed 15 -20 m wide stretch with no traffic on it. For me the second thing is some of the smells as you pass through, today we certainly did a spice village the sudden impact as we pass through hits you like a wave. Others included the wonderful smell of french bread and another which was absolutely fantastic but I could not work it out.

We are here for the biking, Len had a perfect day today no nears misses or any other issues to report. Ross is learning ballet on one corner this morning he went through several complicated leg and feet displays before deciding that doing this on a bike was probably the the best thing. I had a little lie down while taking a photo when the bike and I decide we really did need a rest - I blame this on Ross who distracted me while taking a photo.

PS high light for dinner tonight was a spicy (flavour not hot) fish pieces our amazing guide Chung explained it is a fish with a snake head.

1 comment:

  1. Len's mum disputes the accuracy of some of the content of this blog.

    ReplyDelete