Today we got to Makarora, cycling from Wanaka. If I give you the numbers of our ride, it all sounds pretty reasonable: 62 km, a very light overall climb, less than a hundred metres and sunny weather.
And still, we took 8 hours and spent all our energy, we almost did not make it and has been one of the most extrenous and specially frustrating activities I have ever done.
Many factors combined today. First, the ride was in one of the most beautiful roads I can imagine, along two beautiful lakes (you'll get photos, but not today...) with achingly beautiful mountains. But it was not flat, not flat at all. In fact there was not a single flat kilometer in the whole ride. It was all very steep climbs followed by very steep downhills. In this kind of terrain, we have already learnt the most important factor is to manage your momentum and use it to save yourself precious meters of the uphill. Also it's more fun and you are more positive overall. But I will talk about the downhills in a few lines.
The second annoying factor is that we ran out of water very soon in the day as it was really hot. The route was not well equipped in the middle with water or bars or cafes or anything and we had to push enduring the thirst.
The third annoying factor is very, very annoying, because we've had our second SPD moment. I lost one of the screws in the cleat of my left shoe. That means that the little metal piece in my shoe that clips on the pedal cannot be taken off easily and I have had to take the cleat off. But of course, the pedal is not good for a normal shoe, so I keep slipping out and losing my footing. It makes it annoying and very hard on the right leg. I am going to try to get a new screw, but just so you know, the place where we are right now is Makarora, population 60. Not a lot of Shimano specialized shops around here...
Those three factors can contribute to make a day tough, but still it would not be justified to say it was extenuating and frustrating. The point is that there was a fourth factor in place, and it really, really made us suffer without end.
We had, for the whole day, head winds that I estimate, with my long Holland experience, at between 35 and 25 kms/h. That meant we had to push hard to go downhill at 20 km/h in slopes where before I had gone at 40 or even 50. That also meant every single slight bump in the road had to be climbed because we could carry no momentum whatsoever. And that also meant that going up those steep climbs was a torture.
We spend untolds amounts of energy in order to do a puny 10km/hr average and believe me, it was hard, hard work.
It also was very, very demoralizing, seeing how the wind, almost always on our faces, could almost topple us into the ground and was basically stealing our forces with us unable to do anything but spend more and more energy.
At around 12 I was already angry and fed up. When we arrived to the camping at Makarora, it was 5 pm and you can imagine my mood. My spirits are now better, but I really dread tomorrow's ride, up Haast pass and down into the coast. It is very probably going to rain and if the wind comes yet again, I do not know how I am going to climb that freaking pass. You'll all be informed in due time how it all comes out and as soon as we get to a computer where we can get the photos online, you'll see proof of our hard work.
A small fast comment to finish, today we set up camp for the first time. The tents (our special less than 1kg tents bought on purpose) are perfect, our camp looks very quaint and cool. You'll soon see!
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