A good place for a cup of coffee on a cool autumn morning before starting off from Lake Ohau Lodge
This was the part of the trail that I was dreading. When you look at the elevation map, it looks like an incredibly steep climb followed by an incredibly steep descent and it was all off road. But I needn't have worried as there are worse hills in Lyttelton. If you can take your time, you can really enjoy it and the views over the Mackenzie country are incredible.
Rain clearing and a rainbow to see us off
The only real issue was ebikers passing and then stopping, often in the middle of the track. The track is rough, but not technical, just rocky, so I had to go slow and stand on my pedals downhill. There were lots of distractions uphill, which made it much easier to bear. I saw a falcon fly across my path a few feet from my face.
More views of burnt out trees over Ohau
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Burnt bush over the Mackenzie
There are a few easy fords to ride through
At the summit
With Sue (left)
It’s a beautiful ride down through the grasslands
The derelict Quailburn woolshed
I had lunch at the old woolshed and was left on my own, which gave me more of a chance to explore. Yay.
Quailburn road was my least favourite part of the trail. It is a long shingle road, shared with traffic and though there aren't many cars, the problem is you can't hear them because of the gravel. And it is hard to stay left as when you get towards the side of the road the gravel becomes deep and I found my back wheel sliding all over the shop.
The long shingle Quailburn road.
I didn’t take the side trip to see the clay cliffs. It’s a very rutted dirt road with lots of traffic and a 14km round trip. To see dirt. So onward to Omarama via the Ahuriri (great to see the community work on remediating the waterway by replacing willows with native plants).
We stayed in a cabin at Omarama campground for $85.
Left at 9 am and arrived at 2:30. Time in saddle: 4 hours.