Tuesday 21 June 2011

So that's it for Winter then?

Now that we're over the shortest day hump, nightriding should become less of an issue as an extra two minutes of daylight will shine every day on those busting themselves riding through the Heaphy without stopping.

According to the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand the Sun rose at 07:47 on the morning of the 21st of June and set at 16:58 which gives a grand total of 9 hours and 11 minutes of daylight. Time enough to cross a flooded Aorore, rip into your one square meal, splash the boots, push through the mud, snap/fix chain, pick yourself out of a crumpled ball in the tussocks, replace your pads, do the downhill in style, wait for yer man coming the other way on the swingbridge, lube the chain, lube the tackle, opt to ford the next swingbridge and wind up chasing your drybag downstream, push through more mud, stop for a view, kill a few sandflies and make it back to someone else's car?

Some have done it, more have failed and ended up breaking the rules. Thankfully, now that the long evenings have returned, riders are more likely to be breaking pool balls when the sun sets on Karamea.

No comments:

Post a Comment