Up, Down and All-around – With One River to cross
After a quick catch-up at Springlands, an even quicker bike swap for one of our Japanese guests (ironically from a South African; good to see that rugby rivalries don’t carry over to MTBing) it was off to the Onamaltu Domain. Everybody was ready to ride in a flash and it was into it. In total we didn’t quite make the dozen with 11 riders braving the start of daylight saving and ready to ride out. Only one errant rider got discombobulated from the first turn but was quickly found and retrieved by our generous South African.
Up we went on loose shingle forestry road with much puffing, gear changing and wheel slippage; after 4 Km of climbing is was a long and winding descent down to an unexpected river crossing. After much shoe removal and fairy stepping all riders reassembled themselves with their footwear and it was back into more climbing. We slowly wound our way up to the Kiwi Pass/Wakamarina trail head turn off with a few rest and photo stops along the way. We were rewarded with stunning views from varying perspectives as we wound our way ever upwards.
Two silly old buggers shot up to the Wakamarina trail head (for no apparent reason) while the other 9 riders commenced their descent back to the start. In the end everyone made it back to the Onamalutu Reserve in one piece, had a quick lunch, said their farewells and headed home for a hard earned rest.
Great work on the park of the organiser, Justin, for not getting us too lost and only springing one river crossing on us; it’s going to be a great season of daylight saving riding.
