Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Day 71: Cromwell to Alexandra



Time: 2:37
Distance: 38.82 km
Avg Speed: 14.80
Terrain: Flat w/ mix of asphalt and gravel
Location: 45 14 59.6 S, 169 23 52.2 E

We headed out of the fruit metropolis of Cromwell this morning at the crack of 9:30. We have really slowed down. We still had the magical 2 hours to get ready, fed, packed and rolling as before, we just slept in a little. With shorter days on the horizon, I think that will become the norm. We started the first stage of the Otago Rail Trail today. It started about 20 km outside of Cromwell in a little town called Clyde. We rode the first 10 km of the trail to the next little hamlet…Alexandra. We were a little leery about staying at the holiday park here, but being cheapskates we decided that it would be ok. It actually is quite nice, just really industrial. We were able to wash off the 10 km of dirt in the swimming hole in the river near our tent. Not bad at all.
We ran into town for some groceries and saw the touring bikes that make ours look like racers. They had more packed on a bicycle than I thought was possible, let alone operable. We never knew exactly who the couple was, but we figured it was the duo with a cart full of bread and bananas. Whenever we are feeling heavy we can take a look at their photo. Amazing.
We have 150 km of rail trail total. There are 62 bridges and 2 tunnels to go through. We will need to keep our head torches out. We crossed 1 bridge today, so only 61 to go!
We are off to the even tinier hamlet of Ophir tomorrow where we will take a lunch break with a new found favorite of marmite bread (the dough is slathered with marmite or vegemite and then baked). Salty yummy goodness!
See you
CK

1 comment:

JennSean said...

YOU HAVE BEEN CONVERTED TO VEGEMITE LOVERS!! ARGH!!
-JH