This morning was the coldest morning yet so Tom hopped out of the tent and quickly built a fire in the fireplace. Camp Epic’s open air kitchen had a delux cooking set up and a make-your-own breakfast set-up so Tom whipped up some grilled egg sammiches for breaky. My gosh, were they tasty!
We were swingers today as we cycled over deep gorges and streams on several swinging bridges. Today’s Maramataha Bridge is the longest swing bridge on the Timber Trail spanning 282 feet. In fact it’s the longest swing bridge on any cycle trail in New Zealand.
Originally built in 1925 to haul timber out of the forest, it closed in 1958 as logging trucks found an alternate route. Subsequently it was rebuilt for cyclists!
Yay! We finished the Timber Trail today with a very nice ride along what used to be the tramway out of the forest. This made for some nice downhill sections and a tunnel that engineers created to “flatten out” the ride.
As we road through the walls of rock cut to make way for the tram we thought about all the mental and physical effort to build the tram and how grateful we were for its repurposing.
Now these walls of rock are carpeted with ferns and all kinds of plant life.
Tomorrow we cycle to a remote area to find the Bridge to Nowhere. And we’ll no longer be swingers since the bridge is made of concrete. The only way out of this track is by jet boat down the Whanganui River so I guess that makes us jet setters?
Click on the image below to view today’s video.
Keep Calm and Pedal On 